We All Walk In The Dark
by MostardaProductions
Summary: Peace, like everything is fleeting. But none of them were ready for it to end five years after the war. A murder acts as a trigger to multiple events that shake our heroes to their core; a villain lurks in the shadows cautiously planning his every move, two teenagers find themselves in an emotional clash while other two ponder too soon the question 'to cheat, or not to cheat...'
1. A Funeral

We All Walk In The Dark

**WARNINGS: couples – Taang (main); Zutara; Sukka. Violence, alcohol, drugs, sex… I come up with ideas as I write. So expect the worse!**

**A:TLA, and all its content belong to DiMartino and Konietzko.**

**Enjoy :3**

Chapter One: A Funeral

There is only one way of inviting an exorbitant amount of people to an event and make sure that these people will, without fail, attend this event.

These events are funerals; and people, for whatever the spiritual and humble reason, try not to miss a funeral.

Five years later, 'Team Avatar', as the clever but all the while goofy Sokka once had baptized them as; was all reunited, standing in line just like the rest of the Fire Nation. There where gazillions of people, all dressed in black and holding umbrellas to cover themselves from the powerful rain that poured from the grey, almost black, tempestuous sky. It fell down with as much power as a fireball, tapping the graves, tombstones and statues, creating a constant drumming sound on the muddy ground.

The only people completely protected from the rain were Fire Lord Zuko, General and Counselor Iroh, a tightly shackled Azula surrounded by elite firebenders, a few priests and the corpse of the previous Phoenix King Ozai. These people were beneath the red tiled roof of a small temple that held not only the people but also a coffin adorned with precious stones, filled to the top with twigs and above the twigs was the tidy, yet dead, body of Ozai. The priest sang the last chants and then grabbed a torch and soot the coffin on fire, as was the funereal tradition on the continent.

When Ozai's being is nothing but ash, then the ritual is ended. Fire could be a ravenous and hungry extension of nature, but it could also be the gate for spiritual peace when one passes away. This peace Ozai earned… even if alive he did not know how to treasure it. Doesn't matter if you are a power-hungry beast made off of pure evil and malevolence; death is a generous force and will forgive every sin and immoral act you make, it's its duty. For what is death, if not the only single thing we all have in common?

* * *

Zuko, Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph and Katara were all reunited in a balcony in the Fire Lord's chambers. Somber faces barely enjoyed the late afternoon: the wind howling at the trees, the leaves shuffling against each other, the reflexes on the ponds of rain water. They were sitting around a rectangular table trying to make sense of life and its unexpected twists and turns.

"What just happened is beyond me." Sokka stated.

"It is to just about everybody." Aang said.

"One day, everything is okay… on the next, Ozai is murdered." Toph spoke.

"It's true he has done horrible things in the past, but nobody deserves murder. The worse is we don't even know why, or how, or who… all we have are questions." Katara said.

"How is easy. In the autopsy they said he didn't have any injuries so their best bet is poison." Zuko somberly explained.

Dressing the black enhanced his facial traits, portraying his exact emotions. He had never been good at hiding his true feelings, the ones who truly knew him could always read him like an open book; but now, with his hair messily loose, dark bags under his eyes, cheekbones extremely salient… he might as well have his sorrow written across his forehead, it would have the same effect.

"Gods… my father is dead…" he mumbled while exhaling, raising a hand to his forehead. Sokka, who was standing by his side, placed his hand on his shoulder in an act of support.

"I know these are ground shaking news but we must stand strong and together… for our own sake." Katara's mother instinct took over.

A knock on the door was heard and moments after Iroh's grey haired head could be seen popping out of the double doors. Much like his nephew, Iroh also looked much older and fatigued, lacking his usual cheerful but wise aura.

"May I come in, Fire Lord Zuko?"

"You don't even have to ask, uncle. And please, call me by my name."

The former general entered the balcony holding a tray containing a simple white porcelain tea service. He had decided to apply his brewing skills at a somber time such as this, the youngsters just couldn't negate a warm beverage and gladly accepted Iroh's classical Jasmine tea.

"Forgive my formality nephew, my mind isn't as focused as it should."

"I understand uncle, none of ours are."

"We were just talking about that." Aang commented, sipping his tea.

"I see, this was a shocking event indeed." He paused and drank, then turned to Zuko expectantly "So, do you wish to start an investigation any time soon, Zuko?"

"As soon as possible!"

"You want to start an investigation after a funeral? Don't you think that is, perhaps, a little psychologically tiring?" Aang asked.

"I think it's fitting. It's afternoon, we could start by taking note of all the information we know so far right here and now and not get the guards involved just yet."

"And then perhaps call it a day. Solving a crime takes time and patience, elements our tired minds just do not possess at this precise moment." Iroh advised.

Zuko scoffed.

"Please Zuko, be prudent." Aang pleaded.

Zuko scoffed yet again, turned his head to the side and crossed his arms in an act of consent.

"Alright, so let's all go back to the day." Sokka started, placing his elbows on the table and lacing his fingers "At eight in the morning breakfast is served to all prisoners, obviously including Ozai. When the patrol guard went to check on him on his cell, he was lying in the ground not moving at all."

"So we need to find and interrogate the person that served him breakfast as well as the cooks?" Suki asked.

"Not only those, the guards on patrol duty as well." Sokka spoke.

"Maybe the prisoners themselves have something to say." Iroh advised.

"Okay, so that's a start. Now, what did we find in the autopsy?" Sokka questioned.

"The body was completely clean, except for the blood system. It was all stuck and damaged, that justifies the poison idea." Zuko answered.

"With the right set of herbs that can be arranged…" Katara spoke with an analyzing tone.

"So our murderer is an alchemist?" Toph asked.

"No. He must be an expert to be able to infiltrate the prison without being caught or suspected." Iroh spoke.

"So he's an expert assassin. The Dai Li are excellent trackers and deal with crime easily in Ba Sing Se, they might be a good asset for this investigation." She made a proposal, which was easily rejected. She could tell by all the gasps.

"I thought that organization was corrupt." Aang commented, eyebrows furrowed.

"It was, before I started working constantly at Ba Sing Se. Long story short, I managed to make them entirely loyal to the crown."

"Don't take me wrong, but your word is hardly a viable argument regarding the Dai Li's loyalty." Sokka doubted.

"They did try to overthrow the king." Aang said.

"And tried to kill us." Katara accused.

"You don't trust my word? If I say they are loyal, it is because they-" the young earthbender was interrupted in the middle of her acccusation.

"Calm down my friend." Iroh pleaded "It's not you we don't trust, it's your agents. But they might be a good starting point. We can't neglect any aid that stops by, we all want to be free of this problem as soon as possible." He explained, looking at all of them, seeing as his words took their impact. Some of them still didn't agree with accepting Dai Li's, namely Sokka and Zuko, but they kept it to themselves, expressing their opinions only via body language.

"We will just have to be on our guard." Iroh finished his monologue, relaxed in his chair and refilled his cup of tea that gotten empty somewhere between this discussion.

"Tomorrow morning I'll send a messenger hawk to the Earth King. Explain the situation, beg for some Dai Li support." He still added.

"I'll beg for the support personally. Kuei is still a young, inexperienced king and if you send a message he will just second guess." She sensed their confusion and further explained "Think about it: murder of a former Fire Lord, enemy of the people. If you say that to the king on a letter, he will think you are mad by pleading for his best benders, the ones that are constantly guarding him and his city, at a time such as this." As she gesticulated she sensed the confusion dissipating from her friends.

"I've done _a lot_ for Ba Sing Se. I've done so much I think it is correct to say that I _bent_ the damn city." She snorted "So yes, if I go there in person, my words might have a different impact on him."

"I'll go with you, if we go on Appa it will be faster." Aang suggested, even though if confused, along with everyone else, about Toph's previous sentence.

What did she do throughout all of these years?

That would remain incognito for the time being, right now their plan was established and their rest awaited. They still stayed for a couple more hours just talking, remembering good times and getting themselves filled with that feeling of nostalgia. After that, they left Zuko and Iroh and each went to do their own affairs. Sokka decided to lay in bed with Suki just talking and cuddling. Toph went to her bed, or rather, floor for a late afternoon nap. Aang and Katara decided to walk around town.

Their relationship lasted more than expected but it eventually came to an end. Aang confused love with friendship because of his age. For two years he truly felt happy and complete, but as they both grew in body and mind, they easily fell in the temptation of appreciating other people. More Katara than Aang, for she was sixteen by then and was at the peak of adolescence.

They mutually came to the conclusion that it was best for them to break up. It didn't bother either of them, it actually just allowed their bond to grow even stronger. Instead of a girlfriend, Aang now saw a very caring and special older sister.

They walked through the silent streets, desperately trying to relax, enjoying the last rays of sun that escaped the remaining clouds from the previous storm. Once they heard of Ozai's murder, the news shook them to their core. They were with Suki and Sokka in a beach house, enjoying some well earned vacations after taking care of a lot of political matters. Until one afternoon, a red messenger hawk flew in their direction and landed on Sokka's forearm. Their expressions changed from joyful, to curious to astonished in a matter of minutes. They immediately packed and left the beach house.

Toph arrived the day after. She had started a metalbending school in Gaoling, that much she had explained, and had to give her students a two week _vacation_ with a couple of exercises for them to do while she was gone. It was the first time in years that Team Avatar was all reunited, yet no joy was apparent in any of their faces. They just made a group hug signaling that they would cross these dark times together.

Aang and Katara found a cozy looking tea shop and decided to enter. It was decorated in colors of red and yellow, the furniture was made of bamboo and the smell of recently made tea created a relaxing atmosphere. They sat in a round table in the corner and asked their orders.

"Maybe I should start the journey to Ba Sing Se today." Aang started a conversation, after getting comfortable in his chair.

"What about Iroh's advice? It has been a long day… funerals are tiring… rest here tonight and then depart tomorrow in the morning."

"It's a long way to Ba Sing Se…" The waitress arrived with their tea and placed both cups in front of the respective owners. Katara inhaled the smell of freshly brewed tea while Aang sent a small puff of hair to cool down their drinks.

"I will be longer if you go like this." She advised, then stared at her drink and mumbled "I can't believe this is happening to us."

"I know. It has been only five years since the end of the war… it's too soon for trouble…"

They both took a sip from their drinks. Katara held the cup in her fingers and watched her reflection in the green liquid once again. She did not blink for a while, neither did she want to. She was already in a state of trance and her mind drifted off to two people she hasn't seen in a lot of years: Zuko and Toph. The more she stayed near the scarred boy, the more she felt her little crush grow. Yes she admitted to herself, she had a crush on Zuko. It wasn't particularly hard, the guy just had too many good attributes: the abs, the eyes, the hair, the scar… which it just made it all worse, since all of these were physical attributes, which made her conclude that her crush was pure lust. To control herself, she decided to think about the other person she hadn't seen in a while: Toph Bei Fong.

"She's grown." She said suddenly.

"Who's grown?" Aang asked, completely caught by surprise.

"Toph. She filled out."

"Oh… Yes… I guess." The boy commented, slightly embarrassed by the subject.

"She's gotten really pretty." She pushed.

Aang didn't answer this time. He was trying hard not to blush at the sudden change of topic. Clever Katara, she probably noticed all the glares he threw at her. Off course he noticed how gorgeous Toph had gotten. She hadn't gotten really taller, or maybe it was he that was getting far too big and everybody seemed short to him. No, she was still the small girl with her hair in a bun and a few locks of hair in front of her sightless eyes. Except now, she had a wavy body with a flat stomach, large round breasts, a tight ass and a pair of athletic legs. Her face was less round-like, her figure was still strong and athletic but had now feminine attributes that couldn't be hidden.

It was sort of hard to miss his childhood friend blossom to a muse.

'_She´s gotten really pretty?!' _Aang thought while drinking _That's an understatement._

"When you said you wanted to go with her on Appa… was there something on your mind…?" she smirked at him.

"I wanted to go with her on Appa because it's faster! And if she says that she needs to speak with the Earth King in person, then it's only logical that I should go with her… I'm the Avatar… I can convince him if things go wrong. Plus I'm riding Appa, she's blind she can't steer."

"Yeah… right." She widened her smirk, doubting all he was saying "You know… if you like her-"

"I don't like her!"

"Well you definitely sound like you do!" she teased "You know what? Let's play a confession game. I say something you say something okay? No remorse, no hard feelings."

"I don't like the sound of that." He scratched his bald head and awaited for the worse.

"I start. I hate, _hate, _**hate**... your monk habits. You have so many traditions that don't allow you to do normal things… For me, it was one of the reasons why we broke up."

"I have no choice! I'm the last of my kind, I need to honor my race." He defended himself, slightly hurt by her confession "So… I guess it's my turn…" he searched his mind, though he didn't really have to search that much, he knew exactly the kind of confession she was expecting. So he chose for an option equally spicy and shocking.

"I've… done it. Once, or twice…" thinking about it was the easy part, confessing it, especially to Katara, was the hardest.

"Done what?" and to make it all worse, she was completely clueless of what he was talking about.

"Done _that_." He emphasized, his eyes pleading for her understanding, his face burning from embarrassment, his mind hating this stupid game more by the second.

"Holy crud! _That_!" she gasped out, hand in her mouth, eyes big as two blue disks "Oh silly me… still thinking you were a virgin… when? With who? And more importantly, HOW in the WORLD could you?"

"One day Sokka started smoking some really weird tea herbs and I was near him when it happened… So I inhaled some of the smoke accidentally and ended up in the same state as him. So I think I smoked as well and then he dragged me to a brothel and… it happened…!" he said scratching his head, clearly embarrassed.

"Tea herbs...? Did those _tea herbs _made lots of smoke when burnt?"

"Hum... yes I think they did. And they smelled funny too. Not like any tea I know." he said thoughtfully with a hand on his chin.

"That was no tea! It was POT you sasquatch, YOU SMOKED POT!" she yelled between laughs.

"Oi! Not so loud! P-pot... really?!" he lowered his head, held his hands to his forehead and said with gritted teeth "Oh ancestors forgive me..."

"Oh, woe is me! Aang committed two sins in a row!" Katara laughed even harder because of her friend's innocence.

"Please, it was a mistake! I had no idea what that was so just drop it will you! And I'm a man! We usually do it sooner than you girls!"

"You dunce." She snorted.

"Chill Katara it was just a confession…!" it was his time to tease.

"If you are liking our game so much then why don't you confess you like Toph?!"

"Because there is absolutely nothing to confess! I'm tired of playing now, let's go back to the palace. I don't wanna miss dinner."

Katara still laughed, not feeling exactly defeated. She knew Aang kept a secret, it was just a matter of time until he blurted it out, like he usually did.

* * *

**Updated in 6/7 of June. **

**I'll be doing this for all of my chapters, since I read them now and I see how childish my writing was back then, so until all of these are done, I won't be posting a new chapter. BUT I am back to this story! So I guess that by itself is a victory and a win-win situation between you, my dearest and loyal readers, and myself!**

**And to anyone who is new, welcome to We All Walk In The Dark! I hope you enjoyed yourself and wish to proceed reading this tale I am building! Leave your thoughts in a review, it's not particulary hard!**

**Thank you, **

**~MostardaProductions**


	2. Begginning

Chapter Two: Beginning

Aang woke up earlier than usual that morning. He showered, dressed and cleaned his room because he was going to leave town and didn't want to leave a mess behind. He left his room closing the door behind him and examined the empty halls of the palace: long and tall, red and black, a few torches hanging on the walls and a sequence of doors to his right and left. He and his friends were staying in the guest's wing, a wing to the west of the palace dedicated entirely to hosting friends of the Fire Lord's, politicians or other guests with important matters to attend here in the Fire Nation.

There was not a soul in sight, so Aang decided to get himself breakfast and prepare Appa for the trip to Ba Sing Se. He walked to the dining hall and denied the servants as many times as he could until he finally gave up and let them serve him breakfast.

He thanked the servants and left the dining hall, entering a large and royal looking corridor. There were majestic columns with banners with the Fire Nation's insignia hanging on them. Between the columns were statues of the past Fire Lords. Zuko was next to Ozai looking much more humble than his father. He admired the statue, thinking of the narrow road his friend had walked to achieve this. He sighed. It seemed as if yesterday he was still running away from the banished prince.

Deciding not to linger too much or waste precious time, he left the statue alone and started walking away through the humongous double doors that were the Palace's entrance. The palace was surrounded by a nice garden with the most colorful of flowers and astounding trees. There were also a few benches, ponds with turtle-ducks and a small temple. Aang walked through the grey stoned pavement and climbed down the stairway that lead to the main city. The Palace was built high in a mountain side, separating royalty from the peasants that lived in the city bellow. Of course now it wasn't supposed to mean that, Zuko wanted his people to know that he wasn't going to rule using power and fear so that is why he gave them so many rights and low taxes. Though he lived in a palace, he wouldn't mind living in a bed and breakfast.

Aang still had to walk to the main wall where the stables were in order to get to Appa. But he was in no rush so he enjoyed the morning walk watching as people opened their shops or restaurants, wild animals chased each other through the shallow streets making a racket with their growls and whines and by bashing some crates and barrels to the ground. He liked how the city now had a good aura that actually attracted people to it. He could see Fire folk actually laughing and smiling!

Before he knew it, he was in the stables. It was hard not to miss it because of the smell and all the guards around it. They kept their lizard-rhinos stabled here, it was near the armory so transporting armor for the beasts and prepping them for battle was fast. But now people from all over the world could stable their animals here along with the battle creatures so it was easily described as the loudest, most smelly place with the most heterogenic variety of animals.

He entered the large wooden structure, greeting the guards on the way and was immediately greeted by a very happy Momo who flew in his direction and clang to his robes, along with a sleep drunk Appa who groaned drowsily at him.

"How are you guys? Did you make any new friends?" he said scratching the top of Momo's head who chirped in satisfaction. The flying lemur climbed to his shoulder once Aang motioned to a pile of hay and used a pitchfork to give some to Appa.

* * *

Toph was finishing tying her hair in the usual bun. Two servants had picked her clothes so that she wouldn't look like a clown with pieces of clothing with unmatchable colors. They were now tidying up her room and Toph felt the vibrations of their fast feet walking around the room towards the bed, the wardrobe, the bathroom...

"Could one of you write a letter for me?" she asked as soon as she felt satisfied with her hair.

"Sure Lady Bei Fong. What would you want me to write?"

"Just a goodbye note saying that me and Aang left in the morning to Ba Sing Se. It's early and I don't want to ruin my _dear_ friends' beauty sleep." She explained using sarcasm.

"Of course milady, as you wish." The maid excused herself with a bow and walked to the desk located in the room and started to write Toph's note, using a sheet of paper and wetting a feather's tip with black ink.

"Thanks for all you've done for me. Goodbye." She said, bowing in their direction and leaving the room. She walked a few steps until she barged in Aang's room screaming at the top of her lungs:

"WAKEY WAKEY EGGS AND B-acon...?" she stopped mid scream when she didn't feel any presences inside the room. She kicked the bed and earned similar results "Huh, he must be already up. Typical Twinkle Toes, never sleeps more than seven hours." She left back to her room to get her bag with all the things she would need for the journey and left, only stopping in the kitchen to sneak in and grab an apple for breakfast.

She walked peacefully towards the stables where she assumed he would be. And she was right, there he was with his backs to her playing tag with Momo. She smirked when a very evil thought crossed her mind, she searched for the hay with her feet and covered herself with a generous amount. She lay down with her belly facing the floor and started crawling using her knees and palms, twitching her body and moaning like a monster as she did so.

"What the- HOLY CRAP!"the avatar jumped on his feet and airbended a whirlwind at her. She predicted he'd react like this and used the earth to hold her hands and feet so only the hay flew through the air. She laughed manically still on the ground and let the earth let go of her limbs so that her hands could hold her stomach.

"Not. Funny. Toph." He scoffed, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Y-yes it it! You, like, jumped ten feet up the air without airbending or farting and squealed like a girl!" she said between laughs now standing with her hands on her knees.

"Get on Appa and shut up." He said turning on his heels and jumping on top of Appa's head. Then adding up, without looking at her "… and farts don't make me fly."

"How the hell should I know? I just figured they would, judging from how far you can catapult yourself with just a sneeze!" she laughed.

After a while she finally stopped but still had a wide smile on her face. She climbed on top of the furry beast and let out a few chuckles. She then sat down and grabbed hold of the handles in the saddle. "It's supposed to be the other way around, scaredy cat." She said suddenly.

"_What_ is supposed to be the other way around?" he asked, annoyed to the tips of his non existing hair. He turned his head to her.

"_Shut up and get on Appa." _she said imitating his voice and pumping her chest "that's how it's done."

He sighed heavily and let his head down. He grabbed the reins and rode Appa out of the stables before setting to the sky, as much as he wanted to crash into the ceiling in order to avoid a long trip with a sarcastic, sardonic, seventeen-year old Toph Bei Fong.

* * *

Later that day, work started. The whole city looked like a metropolis: guards were pacing back and forth in the streets and curious people asked questions and tried to peek at the crime scene (of course they were always turned down). Sokka, Suki, Katara and a few guards were interrogating the prison personnel and Zuko was with Iroh receiving reports from the interrogations or from suspect activity inside city walls. He was inside the office of the captain of the guard, somewhere in the second floor of the barracks. He was sitting on a chair in front of a desk filled with wrinkled paper and long scrolls. He was scanning the numbers and words written on them searching for any sort of clue: a name, time, place, any sort of unusual business a gardener could have made. Anything. Iroh was sitting on an armchair with his glasses at the tip of his nose, mimicking his nephew.

So far there was nothing new. Guards would rush in the office from time to time to report exactly that. Back in the prison, everybody that was awake or on duty at the time of the murder was being severely interrogated. For a while prisoners were freed from their cells so that the guards and investigators could have green light to question everything and everyone. Sokka was starting to get pissed off, nobody had anything to say or if they had they would just say something he had already heard: 'that guy was going to serve him dinner' or 'those were the cooks that were on duty at that time, I know because their food always tastes like shit'. He walked out of the halls of the prison and went to the yard. He walked a few steps with his hands on his hips until he decided to kick a pebble and watched it as it jumped three times before standing still once more. A small and insignificant pebble in the middle of a huge piece of land with almost nothing. That was a perfect analogy for their current situation, they knew absolutely nothing. The bastard left not a single clue.

"Fuck."

The cursed word escaped his mouth and evaporated in the air. He didn't usually curse, he didn't really know what force pushed him to expel such a word, maybe he thought it could solve his mystery, maybe he just needed to express his true emotions, or maybe he was just downright mad.

Katara had watched her brother stroll outside towards the empty yard and figured he was in a state similar to her. She followed his footsteps and once in earshot she grumbled "I'm getting tired of asking questions."

He looked at the sky, now partially cleaner from the storm of yesterday, and put his hands inside his Water Tribe pants. He sighed.

"Me too. In fact, I'm so incredibly bored of it, I think I might have to punch somebody just to get a little bit more energy to proceed this investigation."

"Back off scum, before I break your knees!" they heard somebody warn on a deep, hoarse voice. They turned their heads at the same time and looked at each other once more before running in the direction of the scream.

"Why don't you tell them the truth, huh?! You coward! You fucked up and now you won't admit it?!" a rather broad chest recluse pushed the chef.

"I didn't do a thing you fool! Back off or I will call the guards!" he warned.

"No! I won't back off! I'm not afraid of solitary unlike you!" he grabbed the collar of the cook's dirty shirt and pulled him up until only the tip of his shoes were touching the floor. Sokka dashed as soon as he saw the prisoner clench his free hand into a fist and pull his muscular arm backwards. He elbowed the larger man on the ribs, making him yelp in pain and let go of the cook's shirt so that his hand could press his ribcage to ease the pain. Sokka sheathed his space sword (it was rebuilt with the remaining fragments of the comet) and pointed it at the prisoner.

"On your knees with your hands on the back of your head." He ordered. Katara had arrived and her hands were near her water skin.

"What the hell happened here?" she demanded.

"I'm glad you guys are here. This guy is a suspect! He hated Ozai, I had the chance to overhear him say it more than once."

"What proof do you have to make such an assumption?" Sokka asked lowering his blade but not putting it away.

"I heard him threaten a cook during the past few days... The kid probably caught him while he was murdering Ozai and he" he said tilting his head in the direction of the chef "told him to keep his mouth shut!"

"Is this true?" Sokka asked, this time turning to the chef. He was a built man, with a muscular neck and big hands. They looked clumsy for someone who had to be has gracious has a cook. Also, Sokka didn't like at all the dull look on his grey eyes. They were emotionless, the only emotion his figure showed was arrogance, violence and... hatred? A dark aura surrounded this man, that much Sokka was sure of.

"He's overreacting. I always treat people like that. It wasn't a threat, it was more like a demand of better results coming from that person."

"And who was this person...?"

"Some cook, a rookie to be precise. He's not here today though, he's sick. He's not even-"

"How convenient." The prisoner commented "I bet you killed him like you killed OZAI!"

"Shut up! What were you saying?" Sokka asked.

"He's not even punched in."

"Then we will come back tomorrow to talk to him." He said unsheathing his sword back to its cover and walking away. Katara followed shortly after, she just had to stay behind to waterbend a bubble around the hands of the prisoner in order to escort him back without him trying something. Despite the bubble looked like it could pop with a poke of a finger, it proved to be stronger than steel. They announced a lunch break so all the prisoners went back to their cells, the guards went back to guard duty and the rest of the personnel went to fulfill their jobs.

Suki cracked her neck and walked back to the Southern Water Tribe siblings "By Kyoshi, that was one long day." She mumbled still with one hand on her neck.

"Indeed." Sokka agreed, walking to Suki and placing his arm around her waist. He threw a glance at the entrance of the kitchen, now with its door closed and some steam clouding the window on the door showing that the kitchen was back on action. He narrowed his eyes "...But maybe it paid off."

"You're thinking on interrogating the chef?"

"Why not? It's all we have. Might as well take the chance."

"What's wrong with the chef? Did you guys find something?" Suki asked.

"A prisoner thinks he had something to do with the murder. He says he hated Ozai and threatened a rookie." Katara explained.

"Well he could have smuggled the drugs in."

"Maybe he is lying."

"What reason would he have to lie?"

"What reason would he have to tell the truth?"

"Both arguments could be right, but right now this is the only lead we have. Might as well follow it." Sokka concluded.

They started searching for a cheap restaurant with quickly cooked food. They found a little stall that all the food that was displayed was meat. Tons of meat with different cooking techniques and ingredients. Sokka immediately got hyper and begged on his knees to ravish meat for lunch. They took their seats, asked for their orders, waited for their food and kept a conversation about the events of the day. Food arrived fifteen minutes after and they started eating.

"This place sucks..." Katara said, picking on the food with her chopsticks and getting grossed out at the sticky sound it made.

"We'll just stay to eat. It'll be fast, don't worry! And tasty!" Sokka said, brushing his hands together and digging in.

"You are going to turn into a hippo-cow if you keep eating like that." Suki noted.

"Oh, you'll still date me won't you hun'? Even if I'm a fat, four legged, white and black meat eating beast?" He asked, crushing her in a bear hug afterwards "not to mention the drool and the humongous piles of smelly and viscous-"

"Sokka we're eating!" both the girls yelled, which only gave motives for Sokka's laughing to get louder.

"I wonder how Toph and Aang are doing..." Suki wondered.

"Well, they're obviously going to crash into some spiky mountain with giant bee hives and be eaten alive by them. They'll be fine or must I remind you that the war is OVER! There are no soldiers with attack on sight orders so the animals are much calmer now!"

"Sokka's right for once. The two of them are probably enjoying the moments alone..." Katara said as she emphasized a little on 'alone', giggling.

* * *

"I THOUGHT YOU SAID MONKS HAD FLYING BISON CLASSES WHEN THEY ARE YOUNG! DID YOU SKIP YOURS, TWINKLE TOES?!" Toph yelled, scared for life. She heard a screeching sound of wings flapping behind her and took cover as best as she could.

"Here they come again! Hold on to something!" Aang warned and moments after he whipped Appa's reins, ordering him to fly faster. The flying bison roared and twitched his body through the skies, bumping into one buzzard wasp and head-butting another. Aang shot fireballs from his fists at incoming bees, but it was hard to steer and firebend at the same time. Toph wasn't of much help either because she didn't have her element anywhere near her. Not to mention that she was blind.

"I'M GOING TO DIE!" Toph yelled, clinging to the saddle for dear life when a buzzard-wasp rammed Appa' side. Aang let the reins go and shot two fireballs at the giant bee, hitting it and making it go down in a pillar of smoke.

"Bugger!" Aang cursed taking the reins once more and making Appa dodge a couple tall trees. They had flown pass a mountain side a while ago with a buzzard-wasp hive complex built on them. They must have been intimidated by Appa, being him such a big animal and started to chase them away of their territory. But since Aang and Appa retaliated, the bugs got aggressive and kept the chase, even after the avatar and his bison had crossed their territory.

Aang steered Appa deep down into forest of tall and thin trees. The trees completely covered the sky and served as perfect cover. But flying the giant bison through that many trees had made quite a racket and in the end, Appa got hurt bashing into a tree completely tearing it apart, obviously, but hurting Appa in the process as well. He roared in pain as a long branch pierced on one of his legs making blood splash out of the fresh wound. The bison lost its focus on flying and crashed with his belly on the ground. Aang grabbed hold of one of his horns while Momo let go of his robes to fly on his own and avoid getting killed. Toph grumbled because of the affect of the crash landing and slowly climbed down of the saddle only to step on her own feet as soon as she stepped solid ground, making her fall with her arms stretched forward and her face buried in the ground.

"To think for a second I missed flying." She spoke, her words muffled by her face facing the ground. She rose herself from the ground and started to comb Appa's fur with her fingers. "He'll be fine?" Toph asked, still dazed by the flying experience. Momo flew towards a whining Appa. Aang crouched near his leg and analyzed the wound.

"Nothing that a little waterbending can't handle." He smiled and turned around seeing a thin river separating them from another side of the forest. Aang bended the crystalline water away from its path and made it embrace the giant bison's blood soaked leg. He used some of the water to clean and the rest to heal, finalizing with airbending and firebendng mixed together making a soft and warm breeze to dry the leg. Appa rumbled in satisfaction and tried to stand up.

"Oh no you don't. Give it time to heal buddy, you can't force the newly healed skin."Aang forced the bison down to lie on its side. Momo curled up into a ball on the top of his head and emitted low whines as if consoling Appa in his own language. He turned to Toph just to see her cross legged on the ground making earth castles. He sat next to her, flexing one leg and stretching the other, his forearm rested on the knee of the flexed leg. He moved his head so that it was against the breeze and closed his eyes, letting it refresh him.

"How long until his leg heals?" she asked with her hands on a large tower coming out of the side of the castle. She pressed it and soon the sturdy rock was only dust sliding down her fingers.

"Half an hour. He deserves the rest." He said opening is eyes and looking at what she was doing with her pretty castle. He knew she loved to use earthbending to sculpt, he just knew it. It was her secret fetish and he didn't blame her for liking it, she could make magnificent masterpieces in a matter of seconds. So he always felt sad whenever she destroyed them, so he decided to ask her why now that he finally had the chance to be with her again,

"Why are you destroying it?"

"Because the sensation of rock crumbling in your fingers is so sweet?" She let go of the ex-tower and placed each of her hands on the sides of the castle, she pressed the earth but it wouldn't budge. She tried it again only to fail. She uncrossed her legs, tapped one of her feet, sending a vibration around her. She could see his other hand pressed against the ground beneath it and realized he was earthbending. "Twinkle Toes, let go." She swore she _felt_ his smirk grow larger and suddenly the earth around her castle started to move and a bigger, more majestic earth castle rose from the ground.

"Oh, look at me. I can earthbend." She said pulling herself from the ground and turning her head in his direction.

"Well someday the student must surpass the teacher..." he mocked, shrugging at the same time. He immediately regretted saying that because he barely dodged the boulder coming fast in his direction in time.

"Since you are so good, care for a spar?" she challenged, positioning herself and letting her lips curve into her usual cocky smirk.

"I'd love to!" he jumped to his feet and immediately started jumping and drafting to avoid the rock columns coming out of the ground. But it didn't take that much time for him to retaliate properly. In the end, they were both lying on opposite places with their limbs stretched in different directions, gasping for air and filled with dirt from head to toes. Off course, the once beautiful grassy land of the forest was now filled with holes and craters giving the impression that a war had raged in that location, not a friendly spar.

* * *

Appa's rest ended up being half an hour longer than it originally was. After cleaning up and turning the earth back to what it was before, Aang and Toph climbed back on top of the well rested Appa and after the energetic "yip yip" coming out of Aang's lips, they took to the sky. For two hours they talked and laughed about a large variety of topics, keeping the mood much smoother than it was in the last hour of journey. Exchanging a few friendly blows and boulders had that effect on people: they felt as if a large weight as been lifted from their shoulders and their souls were cleansed of bad feelings.

They were both in an excellent mood.

"You know... I really missed being with you. I haven't had these much good laughs in a long time!" he said, opening a wide smile invisible to her.

"Of course you missed me. I'm awesome!" She answered, placing the tips of her fingers on her chest proudly.

"Wow, humility to space."

"More like I was born without it!" she joked and they both laughed. She felt that tingling feeling in her gut that said to her that somebody was looking intensely at her. "What?"

"I was telling the truth back there."

She didn't answer. Instead she lowered her head using her bangs as cover to hide the smile creeping on her face, it was perfect evidence that she reciprocated the feeling, but he didn't have to know that. She didn't do sappy shit. Instead, she decided to change topic:

"How are the others?"

"Who?"

"Agni, the Buddha, Durga and Saraswati." She mocked and he laughed "That translates to Sparky, Snoozles, Honey Bee and Sugar Queen."

"Different. Older and more mature."

"Can I ask you a favor?"

"No, you can't. I don't do favors to people who don't reach my shoulders."

"Afraid I might knee your nuts without having to put that much effort into it?" she warned, turning her head to him.

They started a half staring match, since only one of them could stare at the other, and fell into a deep silence. The only sounds that could be heard were Aang's robes swaying with the breeze, the monotonous whipping of Appa's tail and few concerned yelps coming from Momo. Toph was the first to crack, she laughed that childish laugh Aang first heard in his vision back in the swamp. He then chuckled, holding his belly. After the laughter died down, Aang asked "What do you want me to do?"

"Tell me how they look like. Sparky, Snoozles, Honey Bee and Sugar Queen. Oh and yourself too."

"You know us for five years and you never asked how we looked like?"

"I never had the chance! We were either saving the world from a guy with a warlord complex, doing our own stuff; in my case, teaching a couple of newbies how to metal bend when they can't even smash a rock with their own foreheads or solving the mystery of the murder of the guy with a warlord complex, which is what we are currently doing. So no, I never had time to ask such trivial things as how you look like."

Aang turned around so that he could look at her directly without having to twist his neck. He crossed his legs and let his head hang backwards and closed his eyes.

"This is going to be long."

"We have three days."

He smirked at her stubbornness and started to describe his friends to his blind friend.

* * *

**Updated in 7 of June.**

**Buddha, Agni, Durga and Saraswatti are hindu religious deities. Respectively, they are the founder of buddhism, the god of fire, the goddess with 12-18 arms of war and the goddess of arts, music and love.  
**


	3. Spark

Chapter Three: Spark

Zuko was massaging his temples. He had stayed up all night inside the captain's office, reading reports of all kinds and letters from various persons. When the guards started to leave for their homes, he had told them that he was going to stay and work the night through. The captain decided to stay as well, for partnership's sake. But at two in the morning he had to leave, he didn't want to alarm his family by not appearing at home. When he said that, Zuko immediately thought of Mai and how worried, and probably mad, she was. He hoped when Iroh left to the palace he had told Mai that he was staying.

The office was almost the same as it was in the afternoon; his armor and cape were piled on top of the armchair, leaving him dressed only on a black vest and red loose pants, no shoes. The only light was coming from a little oil lamp standing on top of the desk close to him. On the far end of the desk, there was a tea pot once filled with steamy green tea that he quickly drank to the last drop as soon as it was brewed. It helped his head clear and also kept him awake during the whole night. The desk was a complete sea of paper, scrollsand a few scribbled notes made by himself. People who stopped and stared at the astounding amount of paperwork would easily get lost in the confusion but Zuko could navigate through the mess with impressive ease.

The worst part was that he made zero progress while staying the night awake. All he did was organize the paper work and by doing so he probably found a few loose phrases that could prove theories. But he needed concrete facts, something he could hang on to.

Progress.

That's what he needed; he needed to know if he was going the right way.

He stretched his arms and back, yawning at the same time. He passed a hand through his loose hair and stood up from the chair. He started to put his Fire Lord armor back on while planning what to do today. Sokka and the others had told them of the chef, the cook and the prisoner. Maybe that was a matter worth investigating. He had given them permission to proceed, so that was what they were going to do today. But what about him? He immediately repudiated the idea of staying stuck inside this office again, swimming blindly through the piles of paper. His head shot up when he had an idea of somebody who might help. But the idea of visiting her made his pores segregate cold sweat.

* * *

He slowly opened his eyes, his vision only being an unrecognizable blur at first. Every limb of his body hurt so much he just hoped it would fall off just to end the pain. He checked his bruises: broken ribs, a black eye, a torn lip, a broken nose and several probably ugly bruises scattered through his arms and legs. Blood and sweat stuck his clothes to his body; sweat drops were dry on his temples and forehead, making his medium-length, brown, dirty hair stick to them. He checked his brain, tried to remember simple things: his name, where he was from, his parents, his house, his workplace... He then tried to move his arms, checking if the knots on the ropes tied around his wrists had miraculously gotten any loose overnight. No results, he simply stretched his fingers a few times, letting the gravity and his own tiredness force his hands down.

He analyzed the room he was in: dirty metal walls, floor and ceiling. No windows or any sort of furniture except a metal table standing on a corner with a large variety of tools, some sharp and long, others short and solid-looking. He shuddered, figuring it would be for torture. His kidnapper hadn't used any yet, and he sort of felt relieved by it, but at the same time felt an uncontrollable fear crawl his skin. He was sitting on a chair, close to the wall behind him and facing a door and the table. His arms and feet were tied.

The door was slammed open by his boss and chef of the kitchen, Liu Keng. He had a furious look, more furious than usual, and seemed really perturbed about something. He wasn't wearing his chef clothes, like he was when he kidnapped him from his own house; instead, he was wearing a grey sleeveless shirt and track pants. On his hand he held a glass of water and despite looking as if he was going to erupt, Liu Keng held his head so that he could drink the water without spilling half of it. Off course, after he had drank it all, Liu Keng threw the glass at the ground, shattering it in many different sharp shards. He paced back and forth for a while before talking.

"I have no idea how we are going to solve this."

The young boy tried to speak but found it hard to keep his voice steady "It seems as if you're in trouble."

"Trouble?" he scoffed "That's an understatement. We are totally and utterly fucked. But my boss says it's part of the plan, he says everything is under control! His dogs believe in him, but I'm not as much as an idiot. Our plan went down the drain pipe when you saw the bag full of drugs."

"Why did you kidnap me and beat me up? I kept my mouth shut like you told me to..."

"Yes you did Ohev, but that idiot who overheard me warning you, used the opportunity of the guards all over the place to confront me. He thought he could sell me out but he had no proof. But the Fire Lord's puppies are a sharp bunch of kids and probably guessed my bluff when I told them I was just scolding you."

"Well, you have the reputation of being mean. Maybe the bluff wasn't that much of a failure." Ohev thought for a while why was he comforting the man who kidnapped and beaten him, then understood that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to get him to like and trust him. Maybe that was his way out.

"Yes, you're right. But they have no leads and this is the only clue they have, so they might as well investigate. I told them you were home sick yesterday. So today when they interrogate me again on why you aren't working yet, I'll tell them I stopped by your house and checked up on your illness. You are as sick as a dog and won't be able to return to work in a week probably." He lowered his body so that his grey eyes locked Ohev's brown ones."I don't know for how long these little lies will last though…" The corners of his lips curled up, forming a sickening smile that made Ohev's stomach flip.

* * *

That afternoon the prison was the same bee hive it had been yesterday. Today, every inch of the prison was being investigated: every cell, every location, and every piece of furniture. Sokka and the other two girls were just entering the lobby, reporting for duty. They spoke to a lieutenant in charge of a platoon of guards whose names they didn't even know and asked if there was any task in specific they would like them to accomplish. Words came out of the man in the helmet, but Sokka's attention was completely attracted to a wooden board attached to the wall, near the desk in the lobby. There were a few small pouches hanging on the board, with rather thick wooden cards with names of people written on them with blue ink. There was one empty pouch.

"Oi, who isn't punched in?" Sokka interrupted the lieutenant.

"Uh, what? Oh – It's Ohev. He's missing since yesterday." The name, oddly and awfully familiar, tickled his brain. But Sokka was too focused on the mysterious chef to think about it.

"Where can I find the chef?" it seemed more like a demand than a question but the lieutenant didn't flinch and simply answered Sokka.

The warrior stormed off in the direction of the kitchen to find the large man with a few grey hairs with his back to him. He was cooking something that created a particularly pleasant smell, although Sokka didn't stop to enjoy the smell coming out of the pot filled with colorful vegetables soaked in boiling hot water.

"I think you and I need to have a conversation." Sokka started, without even tapping him on the shoulder or attempting any polite approach with the older man.

"Is that so? I thought I couldn't answer any of your questions, I thought Ohev was the target. Unfortunately, Ohev is still sick and I'm afraid he won't be coming to work any time soon."

"Then maybe it isn't that bad of an idea to go ask this Ohev in person. What's his-"

"I don't think that will be much of a good idea. I went to check on him this morning, and he was looking pretty bad. He was in bed, pale as snow and hiding beneath a castle of sheets. The huge amount of buckets filled with vomit almost made _me _gag. Docs don't know if it's something bad he ate or if it's some strange disease."

Sokka lowered his head but wasn't willing to just lose to this man. He was too stubborn for that. "I don't care if he looks like shit, I have a couple questions to ask him and-" he couldn't continue because Katara and Suki came suddenly and were both dragging him out of there, each girl holding tightly to one arm. Liu Keng watched with a victorious smirk that was spotted by Sokka once he turned his head to stare back at him. The Water Tribe warrior sent him the most hateful look he could muster. They left the kitchen and threw Sokka against a wall, away from all the others.

"Are you out of your mind?!" both Suki and Katara said at the same time.

"You need to think straight in delicate situations like these!" Katara said.

"I can't go all soft and kind like you Katara! That guy is hiding something and you two can't notice it?!" he yelled back with his fists clenched and trembling. He was so incredibly angry he might just punch somebody he shouldn't.

"We do suspect he is hiding something, but that is all we have! Speculations! We can't solve a case with speculations; we need evidence to support our theories!" Suki scolded her boyfriend. Sokka gritted his teeth and punched the wall behind him. He turned his backs to them and took a few deep breaths before speaking "I wish I could be as cool minded as you." and then left off without speaking another word.

Katara felt her blood boil and a vein pop in her forehead. This time, it was she who had punched the wall where Sokka was once pinned to. She counted to twenty in her mind and took a few breaths like her brother had done. Suki only turned around, sighed, face-palmed and whispered "They really are brother and sister".

"Hey, wait. I know this guy." Katara suddenly realized, taking a hand to her mouth.

"What?" Suki asked, confused about Katara's sudden epiphany, when just a few seconds ago she had punched a wall.

"The cook, Ohev, he belonged to a group of travelers we met a long time ago… Tui and La… how can he be involved in this?" she brought a hand to her forehead in shock.

"I don't know, this is all messed up. We're going to see him at his house tomorrow, so don't worry." She said and Katara decided to put the matter to rest and get back to work.

They left back to the lobby to ask once more if they could help in something, until Zuko entered the prison without any escorts or guards. He was wearing the Fire Lord armor and cape, but kept his hair down. Katara personally liked it better that way and, judging from the amount of times she had seen him with his hair in a bun (which were close to none, he only used the bun hair style when he was to attend meetings or other political matters), she imagined he preferred his hair down as well.

"Zuko!" Katara and Suki greeted, curious about why he was here.

"Hi ladies." He greeted back with a smirk then looked around "Where's Sokka?" he asked now with a raised eyebrow.

"Off sulking." Katara answered, crossing his arms.

"Oh..." was all the Fire Lord managed to say while scratching the back of his head. Then he remembered why he had come here, his face turned serious and the next words came in a whisper "I have a crazy idea."

The girls eyed each other for brief seconds before coming in closer in order to listen.

"I'm going to visit Azula."

If words could cause heart attacks, then that single phrase could have committed double homicide. Neither of the girls were expecting this from Zuko. He had sent her on a high security prison for trying to kill the Avatar, the savior of this world, and for not being mentally capable. He only checked on her once and he immediately regretted it because she tried to fry him alive using fire-breath. Since then she was moved into a cavernous part of the prison, deep bellow the earth and forced to use some sort of muzzle that only made her look more horrifying than she originally was. Of course the girls only knew of this because he had told them, they hadn't visited her once. So, judging from the close to non-existent sympathy and brotherly love between Zuko and his sister, what in the world provoked Zuko to have a desire such as this?

"Are you... mad to say the least?!" Suki asked, astonished.

"What makes you think she will even talk?" Katara said.

"I thought it would be worth a try... He was her father too, and she lived more with him than I did in all my life so she might know his complete list of enemies."

Suki and Katara looked at each other with uncertainty portrayed on their faces. After a while of telepathic talking, they nodded at each other and their faces went serious. They turned to Zuko.

"I'm going with you. In case Azula tries to bite your guts off." Katara said, Zuko only nodded and then turned to Suki "What about you?"

"I'll go look for Katara's three year old brother and try to smack some sense into him." She said, finishing with a sigh.

"Good luck with that!" Katara yelled before leaving with Zuko.

Katara followed Zuko's footsteps; she was looking at the ground locked in thought. She had never checked on Azula. She really was afraid of her. One thing are tall and muscular warriors, or powerful benders or ugly evil spirits; but one entirely different thing was a crazy person. You never know what thoughts cross that person's mind, which makes their actions absolutely impossible to predict. She knew Azula wasn't really insane, she was just mentally incapable, as Zuko as assigned her to be. She wondered for a while to think what that meant, furrowing her eyebrows. Maybe it meant that she couldn't take things in life to go against her will, like her defeat against Katara and Zuko or the whole confusing story of her relationship with her mother.

She heard Zuko whisper in one guard's ear. Seconds after, that man grabbed a handful of keys and took the lead. He opened a door with one of the keys and entered a corridor that lead down a long stairway. It wasn't really a corridor, it was more like a rock tunnel with metal stairs and a couple of metal structures to keep the ceiling from falling and caving them in. She noticed that the stairs gotten dirtier as they went lower the tunnel and that the only source of light now were torches hanging on the walls. The guard took one as he passed by.

The stairs ended and they now could see several metal rooms whose doors had their respective numbers forged unto them. There was only a small shaft near the ground so food could be pushed inside the cell. Katara imagined the cells were a complete dark void with only a little strip of light coming out of the shaft. It must be maddening.

Theory proved. As soon as they entered the lower level of the prison, she could hear screaming and stomping on the metal walls and doors. She flinched. It was horrifying: people stomped and punched the walls and screamed nonsense. These weren't rational people; these were irrational and uncivilized animals. She didn't even want to know what crimes these people committed to be submitted into being imprisoned underground.

"This is where we keep the most dangerous prisoners. Azula has a special cage." The guard smirked.

Zuko seemed grossed out at the way the guard treated his sister, but said nothing nonetheless. He followed the guard through another row of stairs and immediately noticed the temperature lower progressively. Katara was wearing a halter top with water tribe colors and the only things covering her arms were bandages wrapped around her forearms. She immediately hugged herself and started rubbing her upper limbs. Zuko noticed how she was dressed and took of his cape and wrapped it graciously around her slim body. She gladly took the gesture and stuttered a 'thank you'.

They reached the end of the tunnel and faced a massive metal door with a wheel coming out of it. By spinning it, you would probably unlock the door. There were chains with a giant lock wriggling all over the metal wheel, making the only way to use the wheel was by unlocking the chains first. You could always try to pick the lock if you possessed such a skill. But they didn't have such a problem because the guard grabbed the bunch of keys and looked for the right one. Once he found it, he gave the torch to Zuko and opened the padlock, spinning the wheel afterwards, applying some strength. He opened the door with a push and Katara widen her eyes at how thick the door was, it was easily one palm thick. A humongous mass of metal to keep inside, to her surprise, a pretty weak looking Azula.

The current place they were in was a small cave, there were stalactites and stalagmites coming out of the rocky ground and ceiling. Some water drops fell from the stalactites, this has probably been happening for a couple years because there were small ponds of water in the irregularities of the terrain. In the middle, there were two large metal columns with chains coming out of them. These chains lead to Azula's shackles: a thick bracelet around her forearms and a large metal ball surrounding what should be her hands. Her arms were forced up, because the chains were pretty short and didn't allow any movement coming from her upper limbs. At the same time, it forced her to stay the rest of her life kneeling. Her prison clothes were awfully dirty and were ripped to her knees. Her skin was as pale as snow, it didn't have the typical Fire Nation tan and she looked as if she had lost a serious amount of weight. Her head was hanging low, her dark and greasy hair hiding her face. Her breathing was weak and made muffled sounds, probably due to the muzzle. She hadn't looked at them, nor made any movement to announce that she wasn't oblivious of their presence.

She was just there, her head hung low and her arms spread up. She looked depressing to say the least; the only evidence that she wasn't dead was her slow breathing.

'_A question of moral origins: did a man, no matter the crimes he committed or the kind of person he was, deserve to be caged in these conditions?' _she wondered. She had admitted, more than once, that she despised Azula; she had admitted that Zuko's people were a bunch of bloodthirsty, racist, dictators; she had admitted to Zuko that she did not grieve for or mourn Ozai. But seeing this, seeing Azula just a bag of flesh, so miserable as a bug, seeming so small you could lift your foot and kill it without any effort… it all made her wonder, where do the boundaries of punishment lie?

Zuko didn't seem very comfortable to see his sister being treated this way, she was treated bellow dog level. She hardly ate proper meals, she was being tortured by this cold (he could understand that the cold was to make her bending useless, but she was freezing in those clothes), she probably didn't bathe that often and he couldn't even imagine how she could sleep in this position. Things got worse when he saw the guard circle her submissive body. He stopped after making one entire turn and only moved to get behind her. He looked down at her and gave the impression he was just about to spit at the back of her head.

"Here is your little sister."

"Thanks, you can leave now." Zuko's rage towards the guard was being barged only by a thin thread of rationality.

"It's better if I stay, she is still a specimen yet to study and can probably bite if irritated." He said from behind her. He then kneeled next to her and spoke to her ear "Ain't I right, Lady Azula?"

A very thin thread indeed.

Azula didn't flinch nor tried to get away from the man. She didn't even move an inch. Zuko was starting to get worried about the lack of reaction coming from his sister, but now he was more worried about the uncontrolled guard.

"Leave. That's an order from your Fire Lord."

"As you wish." He obeyed and started to walk away.

"Wait, before you leave… free her." He demanded without looking at him in the eye.

"Pardon, my lord?" he turned on his heels.

"I ordered you to free her." He said this time looking at him dead in the eye.

"My lord that is a bad idea-"

"I want her out of this miserable place! Look at her! When I said arrest her, I didn't mean make her wish she was dead!" he yelled at the older man, rage clear in his eyes. He knew this feeling; he had felt it when he heard of his father's death. He clenched his fists, regretting his orders of arrests of both his family members. His sister probably hated him but keeping her in another prison, no matter how impenetrable her prison 'cell'was, will probably only make her another target to the killer.

"As your lordship commands." The guard sarcastically spoke the words and walked towards her to release her of her torment.

Zuko didn't have the guts to even look at his sister. She was a mess: she didn't talk, move or look at anything in particular. Her eyes were opened, but she wasn't _seeing _anything. They were opaque, her pupils were dilated almost covering her iris in black. As soon as her tight leather muzzle was opened, her purple lips parted slightly apart and after a few minutes, a line of saliva started to fall of her mouth. Her jaws were awfully bruised and, considering how tight that muzzle was, Zuko wondered if they still worked.

He talked to her, called her name, even shook her shoulders lightly but she was in a state of trance. Her mind was on a coma, blocking away her brain.

Zuko and the rest carried her to the palace. The servants gave her a long bath with nourishing salts for her skin, soaped all of her body having special care with her sensitive knees, washed her hair with all sorts of creams and spread moisturizing oil all over her body. Then they dressed her in a typical simple Fire Nation dress and let her hair down. They led her to her room, which was now almost empty: there were no mirrors or objects that could hurt her in any way, the windows were blocked, the door to the bathroom was heavily locked and there were two guards standing behind her door.

Zuko visited shortly after, he entered her room for the first time in a long time. Twisting the door knob was the hardest challenge he had had in a lot of years. There she was, spaced out staring at nothing. She didn't look at him at all, not even when he sat down next to her. He watched her face carefully and opened and closed his mouth several times, struggling to find the right words.

"Hi, sis." He opted for a little introduction. No response came from her. Was she like this before? How long as she been in a mental coma?

"Azula..." he called in vain. Sorrow and preoccupation filled his facial features, along with a drop of sweat which was going down the bridge of his nose.

"...Azula...! Sister! Brat!" he kept on going a list of names he used to call her. He even tried to call her attention by saying things like 'Azula, you have a strand of hair coming out of the pony tail!' or 'Azula! Mai and Ty Lee left without you again!' but nothing seemed to work. She was just silent, with the same expression she had in her cave, looking into space.

Zuko was terrified. He thought to hold her hand for a moment but was just too shocked with her state to even try. He stood up quickly, with his eyes shot wide and his shaky and sweaty palms towards her. He started to walk backwards and end up going against her wardrobe, scaring him and giving him the reason to run for his life. Away from that dark room where his sick sister was sitting. He needed to talk to Iroh and the others. Azula being in the palace in her current state is a piece of information he might need to tell the Gaang and his uncle. Not to talk about a search for a cure for her illness.

* * *

Aang and Toph had arrived in Ba Sing Se. After three long days of constant flying and bickering between the two, they had finally arrived at the humongous walls of the Earth Kingdom's capital. They left Appa and Momo stabled and told a guard to send a message to the Earth King saying that they had arrive but they would only greet him in the morning, because they were awfully tired and needed to find a place to rest since it was so late in the evening when they arrived. They picked a simple looking boarding house in the middle ring and asked for two rooms, leaving to them immediately. Toph crashed on the bed, burying her face on the soft pillow as soon as she locked the door of her room. She was too tired to untie her hair, undress her clothes and put on her nightdress, so she let the sleep take her in.

Aang, on the other hand was completely different from his friend. He undressed his Air Nomad robes and folded them neatly, placing them on top of a nearby chair where his staff was resting against. He washed his face and teeth and lied down on the clean and smooth sheets, only with shorts serving as his night clothes.

He was almost falling in the void of sleep when a man abruptly knocked on his door, making him fall of the bed and almost curse.

"Avatar Aang, Avatar Aang!" the man yelled "I have an important message to deliver to you. You must read it NOW!" he kept on knocking until Aang sighed in defeat, figuring he wouldn't catch sleep after being woken up this way and decided to open the door.

"Now, who would want me to read a message at this time in the evening?" he asked, taking the scroll from the man's hands and untying the strings.

"The Fire Lord, Avatar. That message arrived yesterday with a note saying this letter must be delivered to the Avatar as soon as he sets foot in Ba Sing Se."

Aang immediately grew serious, and dispatched the man. He didn't read the letter just yet. Instead he made his way to the room Toph was staying and knocked on the door with as much force as the other man did.

"TOPH GET OUT OF BED AND OPEN THIS DOOR! ZUKO SENT A LETTER!" he yelled as he kept on knocking on the door with his fist. He figured Toph had a similar reaction as his to being woken up like this, and off course predicted the muffled 'FUCK YOU! LET ME SLEEP!' she let out from the other side of the door. He sighed and kept on knocking. In response, Toph earthbent a weak earthquake in his direction, making him lose his balance and fall. By now, all of the people staying at the boarding house were awake and growling from all the racket. This only made Aang angrier and in his eagerness he threw a gust of wind at the door, forcing it open.

"Twinkle Toes. What. The hell. Are you doing?!" she said from beneath the sheets. Knowing her, she was probably calming her furious breathing.

"Zuko sent us an urgent letter! It could be news about the investigation and you're more worried about sleeping?!"

"I bet he would be too if he had been flying nonstop for twelve hours!" she yelled back taking the covers off of her, showing off her signature bed-hair. She started to complain about how tired she was from the journey and all the trouble they went through. Which was typical, there was no journey that they hadn't done that didn't involve angry benders, sharp weapons or ugly storms.

He didn't answer her because he was more worried reading the words in the letter. There were few good news, there was a strange story going on between the chef, a rookie cook (whose name was awfully familiar to him, but he couldn't put his finger on it) and a prisoner. But what shocked Aang most was the last paragraph, the one were Zuko wrote about freeing Azula.

"... and then there were those highway men that tried to rob us a couple hours ago and we had to kick their asses and after that-" Toph's complains about their journey were stopped when Aang spoke.

"Toph. Azula is out of prison."

She blinked three times in a row before screaming "WHAT?!" almost ripping the sheets apart.

"Zuko freed her. He says she is in a mental coma since the guards can remember but they never warned him of her state. Since he barely visited, they figured he didn't care."

"Does he?"

"What?"

"Care. Does he care if she is insane? Cause I really don't!"

"She is a human being Toph! Here, read the conditions she lived in! Then maybe you will give me reason!" he yelled back, handing her the open scroll. She just bowed her head and let out an angry exhale.

"Uh… Seriously Twinkle Toes… not this again. I don't know if you have noticed in the last few years that you have known me that I have a _slight_ lack of vision! And nothing she didn't deserve, that wretched witch! Have you forgotten what she has done to all of us?"

"Uh, yeah… sorry about that. But that's not the point Toph! Yes, she did wrongs in her life but don't we all?"

"No, please no philosophy at this time of night... We'll just yell and chuck rocks at each other to defend our theories tomorrow. Is there anything else?"

"Nothing else. That is all." He sighed and started pacing around the room.

"Sparky has completely gone bananas. She will zap him in his sleep and dance around the fire as soon as she gets the chance!" she face-palmed.

"I don't think that will happen. She is under serious watch, Zuko made sure of that." He let one of his arms to fall next to his body and lead one hand up to his forehead. "Do you know a guy named Ohev?"

"O-of course I do! And you do too, he was the guy from the love feast back in the days of the war!" she felt flustered as a rain of memories from moments she shared with the boy washed through her mind "Why do you ask?"

"Oh yeah, that's right! He kissed you in the cheek before leaving I remember now!" he pointed at her and laughed when she huffed.

"Stop fooling around!"

"Sorry, sorry… I just couldn't resist embarrassing you. Okay, okay. I'm done." He contained his laughter and went back into being serious "Here says, that there is good news: there seems to be a problem between the chef of the prison that threatened a rookie cook, Ohev, all of this witnessed by a prisoner. They say Ohev isn't showing up at work because his sick, says the chef Liu Keng, but they are going to check out Ohev's house none the less." He explained.

"What the hell is Ohev doing in the Fire Nation?!"

"I have no idea. All I know is that this is turning into a complete mess."

"And why do I have the feeling that we haven't seen half of it?!" she complained, lying back on the mattress "Well, at least _you_ haven't. Tomorrow we will talk to the Earth King and return to the Fire Nation as soon as we can. Oh, and we'll discuss Azula. Let's not forget that."

"Yeah... Let's just get some sleep..." he said, yawning. He wished a good night to Toph and left to his room, crashing on the bed still gripping the letter from Zuko. Even after receiving shocking news, tiredness took the best of him. He wondered if the same happened to Toph, after receiving such news.

* * *

"They are asking lots of questions around the prison. That Sokka guy has his eye on me." Liu Keng spoke.

"I know. He has a reputation for being observant, after all. It's only your fault that you let that Ohev kid take a glimpse of the drugs."

"I know, I made a mistake..." there was a moment of silence before he asked the next question "How am I going to fix it?"

There was a low, deep laugh before the answer "Where is the kid?"

"In some chalet in the middle of the forest, far away from the city walls."

"What did you tell the guards when they asked for him?"

"I told them he was seriously sick. Something in his intestines made him throw up everything he ate." He spoke from the shadows.

"Take him home then. Give him something disgusting to eat. Make your lie the truth."

"What?" Liu Keng asked confused.

"Keeping Ohev locked away forever will only make the suspicions towards you bigger, killing him isn't an option either so… take him home, tend his wounds and make him sick to the stomach."

"But as soon as he gets better, there will be questions! The kid won't take the pressure of being a witness and will crack as soon as the questions start to shower him!"

"Believe me, the guards will have something more important to think about than what little Ohev might know."

Liu Keng furrowed his eyebrows "What will keep the guards attention?"

"Riots. Lots of chaos and people with different opinions." He noticed his confusion and proceeded to explain "There are people who enjoy Fire Lord Zuko's new peace policy, but there are others who believe said Fire Lord is making the Fire Nation weaker with this alliance with the Avatar. Former Phoenix King, Ozai, is dead; a man who followed the Fire Nation's customs to the limit and brought such economic and politic supremacy. Dead. Imagine how revolted the true sons of the Fire Nation are.

"... Civil War?"

His master smirked in the dark "Indeed. You only need a spark to begin the most powerful and ferocious of fires."

* * *

**Updated in 9 of June.**

**Now that I see it, this chapter can be very infuriating to read because I repeat the same things over and over again!  
**


	4. Ignite

Chapter Four: Ignite

Everything hurt. He swore all of his bones, muscles and tendons could be broken or ripped apart with only a puff of air. He shuffled in the bed, searching for a comfortable position for his aching body to rest. He felt his stomach flip inside him and immediately felt the colour on his face fade away; he tried to get up but his ribs shot out pain across his chest, leaving him to puke all over his formerly clean sheets. He made retching sounds until nothing was left for him to vomit and cleaned his mouth with the bandages that wrapped his entire arm.

He took his time and as much attempts he needed to motion slowly out of his bed and walk limply towards his bath room, cleaning his face with the water on a basin. As he washed the sweat and vomit off of his face, he thought of the last events his life had suffered.

He remembered waking up in that morning and doing his usual morning exercises with his memory and fingers. He was still sitting uncomfortably on that cold metal chair that morning and waiting patiently for his breakfast: the small glass of fresh water Liu Keng so cautiously poured down his throat. His stomach hurt so much because of the absence of solid food, but then again he reminded himself he could live well without food for a week, on the other hand, he couldn't live more than three days without water. He found slight comfort on those thoughts.

He was interrupted abruptly of his morning stretching when Liu Keng stomped the door open, yelling a morning greeting filled with fake joy. This act only made Ohev nervous and anxious and then his eyes shot wide when he saw it: Liu Keng had no glass of water in his hand. His breathing became ragged, tears started to form at the corner of his eyes from not closing them for a while, sweat started to pour down his temples and his hands clenched into fists tightly. Panic was rising on every inch of him as the man in front of him came closer and closer in his calm and monotonous strides. He shook his head, stuttering pleas of mercy.

It was the end. His boss was going to slice his body into tiny pieces and throw them into a river. His family back in the Earth Kingdom won't even have a corpse to bury at his funeral.

He only realized that he had closed his eyes in the middle of his wiggles of fear when he saw light spots projected in his eyelids. He heard the man surround his curled up body (as much curled up his current position allowed) and stop behind him. He started feeling the numbness of the lack of blood around his now snow white knuckles.

He was confused when he felt the bindings around his wrists go loose. And loose. And loose until the worn out ropes fell from his wrists, hitting the ground violently.

He had... freed him? After beating him senseless and feeding him only on water for three days? All of this, because he had witness a crime weapon? Locking him up in an unknown place wasn't enough, he also had to pummel him to a bloody pulp?

And now he was free?!

"You don't expect me to untie the ropes on your ankles do you?" he spoke with his hoarse voice "The last thing I'll do is kneel near another man's crotch."

Ohev moved his arms for the first time in three days, his muscles were sore for not using them for so long and it hurt just to raise them because of all the bruises. But after a couple failed attempts to properly move, he managed to undo the ropes keeping his legs and feet bound. His legs weren't able to sustain his weight and he ended up stumbling forward, his face spared from the pain because of his right forearm and left palm pressed against the floor for support.

"Gods, you are a mess." He said with so much calm and indifference it astonished Ohev. He tried to pull himself up from the dirty floor but failed miserably, instead he span his body with as much speed as his muscles could offer, in order to look at his kidnapper and saviour in the eye. He was now standing on his bottom, using his feet and palms as support.

"W-what the hell-" he was cut off yet again by six pairs of boots walking through the door. He turned his neck so that he could see them from the corner of his eye: three men shorter and less muscular than Liu Keng but still with the physique of a soldier. They were wearing black sleeveless overalls, simple brown shirts and black boots so he figured they were medics. Ohev was getting more confused by the second.

"What is going on? What are you going to do to me?!"

"Relax kid. I'm done with you – my boss has other plans now and you aren't part of them, so don't worry." The teen didn't know what that meant, but in his fear paralysis state he could only think of bad things: he was going to kill him after all. That was the last thing he could remember thinking before he felt a strong jab on his neck, just beneath his cranium.

Next thing he can remember is waking up in his bed, his wounds taken care of and his body washed.

* * *

Toph was tapping her foot impatiently, waiting for Aang to get out of his room. After they had breakfast with the family who owned the boarding house, they had climbed up the stairs and each went into their rooms, saying they would get ready and meet back in the hallway so they could speak with the Earth King and finally help with the investigation.

Toph had gotten ready pretty fast; even changing her outfit didn't slow her down. On their way to Ba Sing Se she wore an outfit very similar to the one she wore during the times as the Blind Bandit, though a little bit more ornamented but white and green none the less. The outfit she wore right now was slightly different though: she had a long sleeved green shirt; whose sleeves were so long it completely covered her hands, a white vest over the shirt, with the symbol of the Bei Fong's sewn with yellow threads, light brown loose pants with a green waistline that would go above her hips and green strings on the cuffs, to tie said strings around her ankles. Her hair was tied on her trademark bun with a yellow and green headband.

She was starting to get impatient: she had already tested her senses by sending a vibration and receiving as much information as she could, she had already picked her toes, picked her nose, eavesdropped on other people's conversations... she was starting to run out of things to do. She let out a long and loud sigh and slid down the wall until she felt the ground, then she crossed her legs and started to play with the space rock Sokka had given her many years ago. Minutes after, Aang finally walked out of his room.

"I'm ready! Shall we go?" Aang asked happily, probably with a wide smile she couldn't see.

"Of course milady, I have already arranged your chariot." She answered in a tone of mockery, standing up and walking down the stairs "What took you so freaking long, princess?"

"I'm good looking! I need to look good every day!" he said, grabbing the fabric of his garment. He had changed his outfit as well, leaving the airbender acolyte robes in the drawers and using an outfit similar to Guru Pathik: orange cloth hung on his right shoulder, leaving half of his body uncovered, this piece of cloth was held tight to his body by a red rope that circled his waist twice before falling next to his right leg, where the knot that kept it together was as well. The orange cloth hid half of his legs except on one side, where the amount of material was minor. He wore black loose pants that reached his knees, showing the rest of his legs which only clothing were white bandages that only covered the base of his feet and then curled beneath the sole, leaving his ankle and toes out in the open (for proper earth sensing).

Of course Toph couldn't see any of this, but she could _see_ the outline of his figure, now with less clothing on top of it, and noticed his body had become incredibly less scrawny over the years. She could see the curve lines of the muscles in his arms: his shoulder, down to his bicep and then to his forearm. He was completely oblivious to her analysis of his anatomy so kept on walking side by side with her, with his staff in hand. Since he was so locked in his own world, she decided to send a stronger seismic wave with her foot, using her earthbending to sense his graciously fit body. Since he was a vegetarian, he couldn't have rock hard muscles that could be seen a mile away, yet she could feel that his type of muscle was one that was mainly curve line, not excessively developed but distributed in equal proportions, portraying his personality perfectly: gracious, subtle, light, wise... She was getting so consumed in his beauty, she figured she ought to say something so he wouldn't suspect anything. So she decided to utter a question she predicted Aang would find quite peculiar:

"You're... naked, aren't you?" she spoke with her head hanging low, for the simple fact that she found it slightly pointless to face somebody when she talked, for obvious reasons.

It took him a while for her remark to sink in. The amount of clothing that was over him never seemed to mind her when they were young, so he wondered why did it mind now? He brushed those thoughts aside and answered her with pride bursting out of his throat "No I'm not. I'm wearing a traditional Air Nomad robe."

"Traditional Air Nomad robes sure show a lot of skin huh?" she said, tapping the back of her hand on the places of his body that weren't covered by cloth, using the ephemeral moments of contact to properly feel his skin. "I guess I know now the origin of nudity..." she curved her lips into her typical smirk.

"Don- don't you dare talk about my people like that! Us Air Nomads don't have prejudices about nudity, we aren't afraid of showing our body and don't let such impure thoughts like-" he was cut off his speech by a punch in the arm by the small earthbender by his side.

"Don't you dare talk about _impure_ _thoughts_ around me, you perverted and gamble loving Avatar! If that's not impure then I don't know what impure means!"

"Gamble loving, that's not true – look, if you're talking about those times in the Fire Nation: I was a kid! Money was something so shiny, so captivating and so easily obtainable, I couldn't resist. Again I say, I was twelve years old! Now where did you get the perverted thing from?!"

"From your sleep."

"I talk in my sleep?! Since when?" discomfort started to creep on his voice, as well as on his face in the form of two red spots.

"Since I can remember. We used to take turns in watch duty back in the day and I could hear you mumble _Katara, Oh Katara_ over and over again. Almost every night! Of course by that time I was rescued by my naïveté on the subject at hand so I just ignored it. But during our journey here, you did it again! Except it wasn't Katara this time..." the last part she said with a thoughtful tone.

The red thickened and he tried his best not to stutter the next words "Who was it then...?" he said, nerves tickling his insides. To say the truth, he couldn't remember but he had been having some strange, awfully _sensual_ dreams lately about an unknown woman.

"I don't know. I couldn't understand a word – all you did was moan and grumble nonsense. What I do know is that I'm so glad I can't sense people's thoughts with my earthbending." She said awfully calm. It seems like she didn't mind that her friend was having wet dreams almost every night.

"Okay, one question: what were you doing up at that time listening to me in my sleep? I don't recall us needing watch duty during our trip to Ba Sing Se." He had pulled himself together once more and decided to strike back at her. Why he did that and why they were talking so openly about such intimate matters, he didn't know. Maybe because they were just that close as friends, maybe because they have both grown in body and mind and such topics couldn't be avoided, maybe because he wanted to talk to her like this.

She must have understood the game he was playing because her next answer was followed by a complete different smirk. One Aang had never pictured her doing: a provocative smirk.

"I was... trying to fall asleep but was completely taken away by the _view_ the earth offered me." She spoke in a low tone, dragging the words out of her mouth. She turned her face towards him so he could see her: her eyelids dropped slightly, shadowing her ghastly eyes. The smirk, the look, and the tone in her voice... it all seemed as if she was... flirting with him?

Now he was confused. He thought they were just talking openly, did it really went downhill so bad that she wanted to flirt with him?

"You know, of the beautiful landscape we were camping at that night." she morphed the smirk back into her usual form, making Aang even more confused, but decided to keep it by himself and simply raised an eyebrow and let out a quiet, doubtful "Yeah... landscape..." in response.

The rest of the walk back to the royal palace was made half in silence, half in small talk and remarks of the people of Ba Sing Se. Momo had snuck out of the stables and joined them (he must have sniffed them out or hovered the city streets until he found them). The flying lemur made happy chirping sounds once he found the two teens and landed on Toph's shoulder, leaving its tail to rest around her neck and opposite shoulder.

As they entered the inner wall of the palace, they were welcomed by two battalions who in an act of respect for the bravery the two guests had showed during the war, earthbent two statues in the courtyard of the palace, one was Toph on her younger years and the other was the avatar also looking much more youthful. Not just that, they also played music using a wide range of wind and percussion instruments. Toph showed her appreciation by waving, raising her fists and laughing; unlike Aang who just bowed and showed his humility towards the welcoming ceremony.

They entered the majestic palace, their steps echoing through the tall stone columns and the equally tall walls. They found the 'fancy door', as Sokka had called it when they first entered the palace years ago; the great golden door was opened, showing the Earth King's throne, where stood sited the 52nd Earth King. Near his feet, lay Bosco his beloved pet bear who raised its head as soon as the two teenagers entered the spacious throne room. Long Feng was also present; he was standing near the king with a different Dai Li uniform from the one he used in the past. It was a full brown leather armour with green details complete with a green cape so long, the ends would drag on the floor.

"Toph, Aang! You have to warn me whenever you are coming so I can prepare a proper welcome!" he stood up from the throne spreading his arms in their direction.

"No need Kuei. This welcoming committee was pretty good, though next time you could add more cheering and music. It's just that... I don't get that stunned with pretty visuals, you know?" Toph spoke, bowing to him "How are you doing Whiskers? Missed me...?"

Aang raised an eyebrow at the "Whiskers" comment, thinking his friend was mad by nicknaming the _king_ that, but then looked in the direction of the throne and noticed the scowl drawn on Long Feng's face. He had to bring a hand to his mouth to cover the laugh, it wasn't every day he got to see somebody humiliate the ex conspirator like this.

"Toph, it's been hard to rule without you by my side to advise me. Of course I have Long Feng, but I really missed the sarcasm..."

Toph chuckled at the king's remark and tilted her head towards the advisor "I'm sure after a couple classes that can be arranged, though I truly doubt Whiskers would let me school him."

"Not at all Master Toph, I truly believe you could teach me a lot about the art." The man in leather armour answered.

"Greetings your royal earthiness." Aang interrupted, kneeling in order to properly greet the king.

"Avatar Aang. Still the same, even though you've grown so much."

Aang made a 'tsk' sound and then answered "It's only been five years since we have last seen each other. I can't have grown that much!"

"Oh but you have. The ears are still the same though."

"I hope the two of you are finished having tea talk. We have business to do here, Princess." Toph moved her head in Aang's direction. She heard Kuei choke out a giggle, repeating the avatar's new nickname, even though he had no idea of the origin of the name.

"Shut it with the princess, Toph! Why can't I be the centre of attention for a while?!" he whispered loudly at her and then turned to the Earth King "Though she's right, we're not here just for the visit."

"I figured not. What seems to be the problem?" he said, sitting back and resting his elbows on the armrests of his throne, lacing his fingers in front of his mouth.

"A murder took place on one of the most secure prisons of the Fire Nation. An investigation is being made but the murder was flawless and no evidence was left behind. We have no idea of the motives of the murderer or who it might be. All we have is the cause of death: poison." Aang stated. He started to resume all the past events according to Zuko's letter, using his hands to support the speech.

Toph brought a hand to her forehead and let out a sigh, in her point of view he didn't have to give him the whole story and he was currently just beating around the bush and that was something that irritated her deeply. When Aang was beginning to talk about Azula, she cut him off.

"What he is trying to say is: we need Dai Li agents."

Kuei's reaction was the one she had predicted: he was shocked and suddenly grew nervous. He brought a hand to his forehead, furrowed his eyebrows and drew a straight line on his mouth with his lips.

"I don't know... Dai Li agents are my most talented earthbenders and my personal guards... Moving a group of agents out of the palace into the Fire Nation to help solve a crime would mean diminishing the security here, making me an easy target."

"What would make you think the murderer would want anything with you?" Toph questioned before Aang could make a long Avatar vow to protect the Earth King. She knew him far too well, she knew Aang would make promises to people saying he would protect them no matter what; it was his way of solving problems.

"Maybe the murderer is trying to bring the nations down by killing their leaders!"

"If so, wouldn't you think it would be much more logical to kill Spar- I mean Zuko and not his father?"

"Maybe he is trying to bring down the nations on a different way, by killing the elders first. After all they are the ones with the most ruling experience."

"I don't want to join his side Toph, but his majesty is right. After all, Zuko was visiting his father for advice on being a Fire Lord and that basically proves his theory." Aang intervened.

"If that's the case then the killer will not be after you, but after the council of five or even Whiskers." Toph retorted.

"Well that's worse! They are my people all the same and while they are inside my palace, I want them to feel secure." He bashed his armrest with his fist.

Toph let out an infuriated groan and led her hands to the dark bangs covering her eyes. She led her hands upwards to her forehead and then to the top of her head, taking the strands of hair along with her fingers. Momo licked her cheek, in an attempt to ease the earthbender's bad temper.

"Okay listen, _my liege_, you said you missed my advice so here is a fresh piece of it: mobilize twenty five Dai Li agents to the Fire Nation. They are excellent trackers which will provide progress on the investigation. I'm pretty sure evidence will start to pop out of the walls as soon as they get there. Now you can send the agents and help an allied nation, or we can solve the crime on our own which will take much more time! Meanwhile, who knows... maybe the murderer will try regicide!"

Toph's words were like the rumbling of an earthquake, powerful and meaningful. Kuei shifted in his cushioned throne, Aang stared daggers at his friend for being rude to a king of all people, Long Feng rested his hands behind him. He didn't flinch from the girl's outburst, his face was straight, his eyes were analytical and his mind was working at a fast pace to aid his king and country.

"Even if twenty five agents are half of our current agency, I believe it is for the best if we answer the Fire Nation's call." He spoke, pointing his gloved hand towards the two benders. Aang raised an eyebrow at the beginning of the statement and looked at the advisor.

"Half of the agency? How can twenty five agents be half of the agency when I remember the double of that number chasing us around town back in the day?" he asked. Long Feng's gaze left the Avatar and locked itself on the floor, his hands were balled into fists.

"That is a story maybe Toph could tell you, Avatar. About the agents, I will trust my advisor. The sooner we send them, the better." Kuei spoke. Though slightly confused, Aang let out a wide, victorious grin after hearing that their mission was a success. He turned to Toph and saw that she as well had a smile drawn on her face.

"Well then, your majesty, we retire from your presence. We must depart at once; our help is needed back in the Fire Lord's palace," he turned to Long Feng now. "It would be nice if you warned your agents that they must ready themselves in an hour."

"What? You're leaving already?" Kuei sounded surprised "You can't leave just yet, your bison must be exhausted, not to mention the two of you! And Long Feng needs time to prepare the agents... why don't you stay for the day and depart tomorrow?"

Aang turned to Toph who shrugged in response. He decided to answer for her "All right, we'll stay. Though I'm sure Appa could handle the journey easily."

"I'm sure as well. After all, your bison is legendary due to completing traits such as those! But for now, rest. Please."

And with that matter attended to, the two of them left the palace. On the courtyard, they found their statues still standing tall but no guards around this time, only the ones on patrolling duty.

"Well that went well." Aang commented.

"It was my presence, it always makes him think a second time!"

"I was expecting more of a challenge, but he immediately changed his opinion after you and Long Feng talked."

"Kuei is like that, actually, I think a king is like that. He relies too much on his advisors opinions and that completely nullifies hi autonomy."

"Yeah… I guess." he didn't agree of course, Zuko wasn't like that and he was younger than Kuei… but he decided to end the discussion there, to avoid a verbal battle between him and Toph "So, what are we going to do now?"

"I don't know." She answered quick and nonchalantly.

"What do you mean you don't know? You were the one who spent a lot of time in Ba Sing Se."

"True, and that made me realize something: this city is only fun during the night!"

"I bet it's also fun during the day! This city is so big it must have so many shops, temples, monuments..."

"I wouldn't know, I used my daytime to work."

"Now you'll use your daytime to explore the city!" his voice overflowed with excitement. Toph just groaned and scowled.

"Oh. Joy."

He dragged her into the train station where they travelled to the middle ring. In there, they went to the post office and wrote a quick letter to Zuko. After that, he entered a souvenir store and bought a map of the city, immediately progressing into planning their sight-seeing. Of course only one would be seeing the sights.

* * *

Zuko had tried everything; at least that was what the doctors said. They had studied her, examined her, even tried things that would stimulate her. Sort of like triggers, things from the past: her mother's portrait, her father's, the Fire Lord's crown... No life came out of the lost girl.

In an act of despair, he allowed Katara to make an old Water Tribe ritual the shamans on her culture used. She had explained to him that in her Tribe there were no doctors, medical facilities, tools or study of the human anatomy; there were healers and herbs they would collect during Spring and Summer, when the land wasn't drowned in snow and ice and actual vegetation grew deeper in the continent. The healers would use water bending and sometimes the right selection of herbs to tend to the wounds, the herbs being also useful to brew remedies or syrups. Then, there were the chants and rituals, performed in the name of their patron spirits, Tui and La and sometimes under the name of other divine deities. Her culture was much more connected to the Spirits and Gods than the Fire Nation, who only worshipped gods of war and malevolence. They would chant in the old language to the badly wounded, begging the divines to tread their dying tribesmen.

So here the waterbender was, inside Azula's room kneeling on the wooden floor, behind the sick girl. Her thumbs were on the other teen's forehead while her other four fingers were gently pressing her temples. The room was dark and quiet; she had shut the blinds and pulled the curtains to stop any light from entering the room and she didn't allow anybody to enter either.

The two benders were surrounded by differently coloured and shaped candles and in front of Azula, there was a wooden bowl containing a few burnt aromatic herbs, their smell was intense, yet pleasant. Katara had to simplify the ritual, since it required a lot more preparations like body paint, jewelry and proper robes and those things weren't accessible to her here in the Fire Nation.

Katara had been over Azula for a while now, her glowing hands gently pressing her chakras, organs and chi flow. She concluded that there was nothing wrong with her body that caused her brain to shut down; she had done this to herself. The question was, why?

She let out a sigh in defeat, slid her fingers away from her head and raised herself up from the floor. She walked towards the locked glass doors that led to Azula's personal veranda and pulled the blinds up, followed by the curtains. She stared at the wooden tiles the guards had screwed on the doors to prevent the young adult to flee from her room; through the spaces in between the tiles she could see the dark clouds start to form up in the sky.

Dark times were upon them indeed, literally. Second storm, during summer time, ever since they had been here.

She exited the room and the palace guards waiting outside entered, laying Azula comfortably inside the silk, red and yellow sheets of her queen sized bed. Zuko was sitting on a bench, watching the rain drops tap the window, first slowly, and then progressively growing in speed, amount and force. She decided to sit next to him, resting her elbows on her knees and cupping her face in her own hands. He didn't move or acknowledge her presence next to him, he just stood there watching one of the many the large windows in the corridor.

He didn't talk, he didn't move, he didn't speak. He was just there – sitting, his back curved and his forearms resting on his knees.

"I don't like rain." He thought out loud "The Fire Nation is the warmest country in the world, yet the rain doesn't cool the temperature at all. It's such a useless phenomenon, it just wets everything." His voice escaped his mouth almost in a whisper, Katara started to think he was talking to himself.

"The sky gets all grey and black... the clouds grow fat and ugly... and then there is all the noise from the rain and lightning..." he continued, dragging the words in his speech.

"Lightning..." he repeated "...she can make lightning. Or could... I guess."

"It's not over yet Zuko! There is still so much we can try!" her voice raised several octaves higher without her permission.

"What else can we try that we haven't tried yet, Katara?! The doctors tried every method known to mankind and it didn't work. You just used your witch magic on her and, surprise?! IT DIDN'T WORK!" he was standing now, pacing back and forth and gesticulating a lot. His voice was just like the roaring thunder and restless rain outside.

Katara gripped the cloth of her pants desperately as she flinched at every word Zuko spat. She felt hopeless; her brain froze, blocking away the ability to put the right set of words together in order to help him, to wipe away all the sadness she could see on those amber eyes.

"There is... nothing else we can do - she is going to stay like this forever. A ghost, a vegetable, not dead or alive but something in between. She will just be a breathing bag of bone, flesh and blood... nothing else." The fast pacing sound of his boots, furiously clicking the metal floor stopped and was traded for the crushing sound of rain, filling the void that was the silence between them.

She _was_ hopeless, she felt like all of her being was useless right now. The frustrating feeling of not being able to think of something, let alone _do_ something to cheer up the depressed prince was burning her insides... but she _had _ to do something, anything just to wipe away the depression from Zuko's soul. So she stood up and did the only thing she thought was fit for a moment like this: she cradled him in her arms like if he was a baby who had just came to the world or a young boy who just had his first love displeasure. She smashed her fingers against the back of his plated armour and buried her face on his chest. She tightened the grip when she didn't feel a reaction coming from him; she could feel him as stiff as a pole, his arms falling on each side of his body.

_How much more pathetic can I get? I can't even cheer up somebody properly..._ the metal of his armour was cold on her face and her fingers went stiff, she started to slide her palms to his lower backs, only stopping to gasp when she felt his forehead pressed to the curve of her neck.

"How can I help a Nation when I need help myself?" his voice cracked, like fragile twigs and branches from autumn trees when you stepped on them. His plea was camouflaged by ragged breaths and hiccups as he spoke near her neck.

"Let _me_ help you..." her voice was almost inaudible, like his was just a few minutes ago. She let go of his backs and raised her hands to his face, forcing him to look at her. She looked at both his eyes, not just the healthy one, she looked at the one covered by sensitive burned skin as well. The mark of his past, a memory from his father he would bear until he died. But she wasn't afraid of the scar, she thought the scar was a very important lesson Zuko undertook. Thanks to it, he had turned into this man she was holding right now.

A better man, a _good_ man.

"... then you can help your Nation." She finally finished, never breaking eye contact with the Fire Lord. Each of their eyes, amber and sapphire, had casted a spell, a hypnosis on each other and none could break out of it. It felt like a stronger force, so strong and powerful they couldn't fight it, it pulled them closer to each other, until there were only inches separating them.

Neither did they want to pull apart from one another. Yet they had to, as soon as they heard somebody run their way, they awkwardly pulled away and placed as much distance between each other as they could. The man dashing towards them turned out to be a guard that stopped to catch his breath as soon as he approached the two master benders, not bothering to look up and understand what situation the two were in before he had arrived. What situation could have made the two so embarrassed that they were both looking at random spots and trying desperately to hide their faces?

"My Lord... there is a crowd of people out of control in the marketplace!" the guard spoke from behind his helmet.

"What?!" that was the first loud word Zuko had spoken in a while.

"Come quick my lord, the men can't hold them off for much longer and if they see the situation can't be handled with the way of the voice..." they had walked outside the palace and were now facing the courtyard, Zuko could see two lizard-rhinos under the rain.

He climbed on top of one of the beasts and finished the firebender's sentence. "... they will handle it with the way of fire. I know." He said, turning to the guard who was climbing on top of the other reptile. He noticed Katara standing by the large doors of his palace, one hand resting on the closest wooden gate and the other clenched into a loose fist and hanging in front of her. She was looking at him, but he was too far away from her to see the feelings overflowing from her blue eyes.

"Katara, come with me." He invited her and smiled when she climbed down the stone stairway and stepped into the rain, running in his direction afterwards. He held out a hand to assist her to climb on top of the sturdy beast's saddle.

"Wait." He ordered the other guard, which turned his head to him, questioning the order.

Zuko took off his cloak and gave it to Katara, just like he did the other day on the cold cave. Only this time, he wanted to protect her from the awful storm that raged above them; he was already a little too late because her clothes and hair were already soaking wet but she gladly accepted the Fire Lord's courtesy, covering herself with the long piece of red cloth, thanking him in the process and offering him her best smile of gratitude without blushing due to remembering the moment of closeness the two shared just a few minutes ago.

"Now we can go." He stated, storming off his palace's courtyard, the thick paws of the lizard-rhinos making repetitive splashing sounds on the muddy ground.

They rode the lizard-rhinos to a round, crowded square. There were lots of stalls with lots of layers of cloth to protect their merchandise from the rain, thin and long wooden beams serving as supports for the stall. The shop keepers were luckier; their shops were protected by a roof. In the middle of the square stood an impressive marble fountain with sculptures of immortal beings from the tales and myths. Standing in front of the fountain stood a man in dark brown robes, black leather boots and a red headdress. He was speaking towards a crowd with a strong, confident voice with his arms raised by head level and constantly clenching his hands into fists.

"Together, my friends, we can defeat this tyrant that cursed our land, turned us weak and crushed the empire our former true leaders worked so hard to rise! He may have blinded you with his low taxes, peace policy and promises of a thriving life; but my brothers and sisters, those are nothing but lies! He is just a boy who needed to counsel his imprisoned father for Fire Lord advice! He wished he could be half as good as our true leaders: Azulon, Sozin, Ozai! I can see in our young Fire Lord's eyes; he would rather sacrifice himself for his friends, those two dark skinned savages, the teen avatar and the blind girl, than for his country: his home, the place that fed him and protected him! Hear me, for I speak the truth: Fire Nation blood runs through his veins no more!"

"Don't you dare talk like that about your Fire Lord, peasant!" a guard screamed through his helmet, pointing a finger at the man. Four other guards started to round up the throng of people, telling them to return to their affairs.

"See, my companions? This man has been obviously manipulated by the Avatar's lies as well!"

"Shut up or I'll punish you! Get down from there!" the guard shouted once more, gripping the scimitar hanging on his studded belt.

"Punish me?! You should be punished for betraying the Fire Nation!" the man raised his voice, pulling one hand inside his robes. The guard barked orders at the man, sheathing his blade in the process. The other man brought a knife out of his robes, the sharp blade pointing to the ground, and he was just about to jump at the guard when he heard the low, unmistakable voice of his Fire Lord over the drumming sound of the rain.

"I believe that's enough." He spoke, getting down from his mount and smashing the mud with his boots when he made contact with the wet ground "And for the record – the Avatar is no liar."

The robed man shuffled his feet and found himself in loss of words for a few seconds, but pulled himself together in the presence of the Fire Lord and stared back at the scarred twenty-one year old.

"If you can't recognize that he is a liar, then you are a fool."

He spat the words in his face, it shocked every present man and woman. No one has ever disrespected a Fire Lord this way and got away with it, but even though Zuko didn't flinch at the insult, he didn't make any attempt to heat the man's body so much, his blood would start to boil in his veins and burn him alive from the inside. Instead, he walked a couple steps towards the man, never breaking eye contact with him and stopped when he was at arm's length.

"Why are you trying to pull a mutiny? As far as I'm concerned, I didn't make any thing to lower your business. Actually, tourism has increased in a terrifying sort of way, increasing your business as well. People enter our country attracted by the warm weather, the exotic food and the tropical land; not because they must attend a life-threatening meeting with a politician or even myself, or because they were arrested for not following my law."

"In your father's time, the Fire Nation was a powerful and feared country! People trembled at the sound of our fire and searched for shelter when our machinery roared through the terrain: water, air, earth... it didn't matter, we ruled it all! Now we are seen just like the rest! Where is our honour?!" this last phrase he threw at the crowd that now watched the discussion with cautious eyes "Where is YOUR honour Fire Lord?!" he spat at the young ruler who this time lowered his eyebrows, his honour was a very sensitive subject. A deadening silence filled the air, nobody moved a muscle or tried to make a sound. Then, out of nowhere, a timid hand raised itself, the index finger stretched out slowly, pointing towards Zuko. Its owner spoke in a booming voice.

"I agree! Where is your honour my Lord?!" The owner of the voice was a man, probably in his early fifties, but still wearing Fire Nation uniform. He definitely served Ozai during the war, so Zuko figured he was a retired soldier and judging from the different colours on his armour, he had probably been a general.

Glances were shared, words were whispered, some people started to leave the square while others seemed to turn in Zuko's direction, as if challenging him. Suddenly, more people shouted. Some women, others men, all Fire Nation; their voices overflowed with obscure feelings.

"Where is your bond with the Fire Nation?!"

"Where is the merit and praise our Nation deserves so much?!"

"Where is your lineage, your first born?!"

"When do you intend to marry?!"

"Where is the empire your father worked so hard to form?!"

"You destroyed it as soon as you joined the avatar!"

"And what are you doing wasting your time with a Water Tribeswoman?! Cheating on your future wife?!"

Zuko felt like he was being scolded by his father again. Actually, that was the perfect analogy, his people were his father and he was, well, himself; being beaten and humiliated in front of those he most respected. Every comment from the people he worked so hard to please, burnt him on his right side, the one where his father had scorched him with a fire blast. He raised a hand to the right side of his face, gripping the sensitive skin. It was really burning; it always did when he felt rage, pain or hatred.

The pain was consuming. He couldn't take it anymore; he had to get out, to let it out. He needed help, it was too much for him.

So the only way he found to ease the pain, was by letting it all out, just like his uncle taught him to. He roared, like a dragon, and blasted a vortex of fire all around him; the flames engulfing out of his fists and mouth, silencing the crowd.

"SHUT UP!" he roared, his voice seemed to silence even the storm showering them. He had his hands balled into fists falling on each side of his body, his head hung low and his eyes were closed shut. He only opened them, slowly, to see the messiah-looking person with a roasted forearm, probably due to his outburst.

He didn't know if what he did infuriated these people more and gave them more reasons to start a rebellion, or if he taught them a lesson, in which he hoped he did. He didn't want to fight his own people, the one he so heartily sworn to protect.

He didn't check if the man was okay, he figured he wasn't because his skin was an awful mix between red and black, the rain pouring down on it formed small clouds of steam, which lead to moans of pain from the injured man. He didn't think about Katara's opinion regarding his action, nor about his citizens' or his guards'… he really didn't care, or maybe he did but he wasn't in the mood to think.

Zuko let the guards take care of the situation and mounted the lizard-rhino, heading for home, never speaking a word to the slim waterbender who was clinging to his waist, which he hardly felt the touch because of his plated armour. She was probably doing it in an act of comfort, showing she cared and was there to talk if he wanted.

But he didn't want to. When he reached the palace, he went into his chambers, stripped down into his red pants and poured some fire whisky into a glass. He sat down on the table he used to tend paperwork and placed the expensive bottle and the glass, once filled with brownish liquid, on top of the table. He filled the glass again and drank a smaller amount this time, since his throat still burned from the strong drink forced down it.

Heck, his whole body burned: his scar, his forehead (probably a fever), his muscles and now his throat. He started to hate rain even more.

"Your home? This early? I'm impressed you decided to show up. I thought you would stay buried in work or hanging out with that waterbender for the rest of the day." Mai spat the sarcasm at his back. _Great_ he thought _This day just gets better and better._

She seemed royally pissed and he was royally pissed.

This conversation wasn't going to end smoothly.

* * *

Toph was pissed, very pissed to be exact. In fact, she didn't remember getting this pissed in a while. She usually didn't mind people forgetting she was blind and asking her to make things she couldn't do because of her disability, like reading, writing or simply _looking_ at something.

She really didn't mind, she actually made blind jokes herself!

But one thing was forgetting she was blind, a completely different thing was forgetting and not remembering seconds after. And that was exactly what happened, Aang had forced her to step on every brick covering the ground of Ba Sing Se, so both of them explored the entire city. All the monuments and temples in the fancy and rich upper ring and all the stores he deemed interesting in the middle ring.

During the visits, he had explained to her all the details she couldn't capture with earthbending, so by that time she wasn't finding the trip horribly unbearable, only slightly boring but kept it to herself because she knew he was enjoying himself. When they were finished with the middle ring, they walked up the shop filled roads towards the monorail so they could go back to the boarding house.

That was when her mood morphed awfully fast.

"The sunset's beautiful, I wish you could see it." Aang commented gleefully, looking at the reflexes of the setting sun on the water of the river that flown in the middle ring.

"Oh I bet there are a lot of other things you wished I could see." Toph retorted innocently, regretting her choice of words almost instantly. After their little flirt fit(her completely checking on him), in the morning she wondered if he thought she was saying things with second meanings – _again._ Frankly, she didn't remember when she hit her head so hard that would make her say and think such things about him like that.

It was still a mystery to her.

"Indeed." He said. She sighed in relief – either he let the comment slip or he was oblivious to the innuendo. "There are so many stunning views in nature, like waterfalls or the auroras in the Poles... And even us, mankind, can make magnificent things! Like my people's temples hanging off the cliffs or built up high in monstrous mountains. Mountains so tall I bet it's as close to the gods as you can get!" He ranted with a special gleam in his eyes.

"The world is so beautiful the way you put it!" she squealed with fake awe. "Bah – I've seen prettier."

"... No you haven't, Toph..."

"Is sarcasm a foreign language to you?"

After chuckling to her blunt attitude, he entered a comfortable silence. A few more minutes of walking and then the train station was in view, but on their way to the long green and grey building, they found a viewpoint with the form of a half-circle, a wooden arbor with creeper plants crawling their way through the structure and creating a shade to the long bench standing in the middle of the ground. It all provided a better feeling of the sunset and the city; a pallet of oranges, yellows and reds sprayed through the sky, the big yellow dot that was the sun, slowly going down, its light getting dimmer and weaker. The enormous city with simple and solid buildings; some smaller others taller, all green, yellow and brown, was struck by the sunlight shining through the buildings. All in all Aang, being the art and beauty interested fellow he was, had to stop and enjoy the view. He started to close his eyes and let the last rays of sun to tingle his skin; all this, along with the small breeze that had settled in made him feel fully relaxed and, slightly sleepy. He decided to sit on the ground, his legs crossed and his staff resting on his lap. He straightened his back and inhaled deeply, a smile crept on his lips, it all reminded him of home: the Air Nomads meditated like this a lot, actually they meditated on almost all of their free time. He remembered when he was younger falling asleep in mid meditation... they couldn't blame him: the sun, the breeze, the silence only broken by the sound of nature... all made him awfully drowsy.

"What are you doing Twinkle Toes? We gotta get going or we'll miss dinner!"

"Wait a minute Toph." He breathed out "Why don't you join me? You don't need to see to feel the sensation of peace this place is offering."

"Oh I can feel it well enough from here, though it's hard to pay attention to it when my stomach is sending much stronger vibrations!"

"Do you only think about your stomach?" he popped an eye open but didn't turn to her.

"It's hard to ignore when I barely ate at lunch because you forced me into eating Air Nomad food at that tea shop! I mean seriously, how come you aren't a bag of bones?! Air Nomad dishes consist of a spoonfull of rice and that's it! 'That's all you are eating for today, thank you and come again! And if you starve, don't worry, the wind will take your remains to the right path'" she said, the last part imitating an old man's raspy voice.

"Oh c'mon Toph stop being such a cry baby, we'll eat as soon as I get some meditation."

"Oh sure, wouldn't want you to miss something as precious as meditation, Oh Great Spiritual-Scrawny-Bald-TwinkleToes One."

"Just give me a few minutes. I won't take long." And after that he closed his eye again, breathing deeply and letting a smile creep into his lips. Memories of his childhood rushed into his mind again and, for brief seconds he completely forgot about his blind friend waiting impatiently for him.

For a few minutes he struggled to keep himself in a short moment of peace, so he could fulfill his promise, but the breeze, the sunset, the smells, the sounds and the memories, these especially, all made him fall into old habits. First his back started to curve gently, then his shoulders and hands fell, breaking his meditation stance. Finally, his neck started to fall and he dozed off to sleep.

Toph was waiting patiently a few feet away, the bags of their purchases resting somewhere near her. Her patience was slowly fading away and evidence of that were her crossed arms, her fingers drumming her arm and her posture: all the weight of her body was falling on one leg while the other was slightly bent. She sighed impatiently, making a few strands of hair float in front of her face.

"Twinkle Toes...!" she called and felt more infuriated because he didn't answer.

"Oi, Guru Aang! I'm creating roots here!" Toph tried again, only to get the same result. She growled and tapped her foot rather rashly, sending a wave in his direction to feel him, then, she tapped her foot once more to feel his insides.

She felt like punching him. In the head. With a rock glove.

By what she could sense, he was completely relaxed: air entered and left his lungs in long and controlled inhales and exhales, his heart beat was steady and calm, beating quietly against his ribs. His muscles were completely relaxed and he was curved in a position that just seemed awfully uncomfortable.

In other words, he was asleep.

"AANG!" she yelled from the top of her lungs, stomping one foot on the ground, creating a crater around it.

"UH?! WHAT? Who's in danger?!" he jumped and took a stance as fast as he could, tumbling to the ground because of the rude wake up.

"YOU! You are in danger!" she stomped her way towards him and realization hit him, literally, she punched him on the ribs and while he bent over to press a hand to his bruise, she slapped him on the top of the head. "Thinking of taking a beauty sleep and leave the starving blind girl to count koala-sheep, huh? 'Oh I'll just sit my ass here and _meditate_... meanwhile, I can take a nap! She will never know!'"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry Toph! We have been walking the whole day, I guess fatigue was stronger than me!" he said, covering both the places of his body that hurt.

"Oh now you're sorry, you utter douchebag?!" she said punching him at the top of the head with so much force, Aang thought she was going to break his skull in two.

"There, I've blocked your crown chakra. Now you have a reason to meditate."

And with that she stormed off to the train station, him following as fast as he could and trying hard to catch the same train as her. He had tried to talk to her, but she was incredibly angry, telling him he had dragged her to all the places she couldn't see nor find the least interesting and in the end he completely forgot about her as he let himself be consumed by the beauty of the sunset.

Yes, she was mad. But she was going to make him pay. Hard.

* * *

**Updated in 11/12 of June.**


	5. So Close, Yet So Far

Chapter Five: So Close, Yet So Far

"Toph Bei Fong! Open this door right now!" Aang screamed at the locked door in front of him while bashing it with his fist.

"Get lost!" he heard her muffled response from behind the door. He got slightly impressed at the girl's vast vocabulary; she had told him to leave her alone in many different ways, rude ones included.

"I'm still mad at you for forgetting about me."

"I've been saying I was sorry for the last hour and a half! Isn't that enough?!" he yelled at the door, stopping the bashing only for his arms to extend themselves on each sides of his body in exasperation**. **He expelled a loud, annoyed sigh and led his hands to his hips and closed his eyes.

She hasn't shown kindness (he considered Toph's sarcasms and friendly punches displays of kindness) towards him ever since they entered the monorail. Her irritation towards him didn't disappear during dinner either, making the owners throw questions at them, which almost originated a big discussion between both benders. The only way the earthbender found to prevent such catastrophic event was to excuse herself from the dining table and climb up the stairs to her room. She didn't go alone though; a young woman, slightly older than themselves and probably the daughter of the owners, agreed to follow Toph to her room when she asked her to, saying she 'needed help getting dressed'. This had made Aang freeze and stop sucking the noodles from his soup, staring at the leaving figures climbing the stairs instead.

His eyes gawked at Toph's empty seat, then at the stairs she was once climbing and then back at the chair. His eyes shot wide when realization hit him for the second time that day by the same girl.

He jumped out of the chair, placing it back in place because it had tumbled to the floor due to his sudden action. He caused a mini heart attack to the remaining people sitting at the table whose eyes he could easily read as 'confusion, confusion, confusion'. He motioned to run up the stairs but stopped on his heels and turned around, bowed and mumbled his gratitude for the food and apologized for his behaviour. After that, he ran up the stairs skipping some steps on the procedure.

So for a while he had been screaming at Toph through the door, trying desperately to knock some sense into her stubborn head but to no avail. She never once opened the door or gave away to his pleas or begs of forgiveness. Sometimes, he heard the two girls walking through the room, dragging some furniture (chairs, he figured), opening the drawers or simply talking.

Whatever was on Toph's mind sure took a lot of preparation.

"Please Toph... tomorrow we have a big journey... We don't have time for this." He swallowed his pride and opted for a more soft approach on the blind girl.

He waited a few seconds for her response. Those seconds easily turned into long, suffocating minutes of anxiety, which led to Aang leaning in for the keyhole so he could peek at what the hell the two ladies were doing.

'_I need help getting dressed.'_

Her words ringing, no, screaming in his mind made him turn away from the little golden hole of the door with so much natural speed, it put his airbending skills to shame. He couldn't imagine what the girl would do to him if she found out he was peaking at her, though the idea really was tempting, as much as Aang tried to mentally slap himself for thinking such perverted things about his _childhood_ friend.

He was interrupted from his mental debate when the door opened, showing the older girl but no sign of Toph.

"She left through there," she pointed with her thumb to a perfectly round hole on the wall of the earthbender's room "she also said that you would be able to fix it."

"Uh... sure." He said and stepped inside the room. He analyzed it: lots of differently coloured and shaped dresses and other formal pieces of clothing were piled on her bed, not all of them belonged to Toph, he noticed; all the doors of the wardrobe were open and he could see that Toph's clothes had been pinched, scrubbed and touched more than once. The bathroom door was open wide and he could see an oil lamp resting on the marble of the bidet, with a powerful flame lighting a mirror and, to Aang's surprise, a kit of make-up items.

'_What, in the name of all that is holy, are you doing Toph Bei Fong?!'_

"Ahem. The wall, good sir, please." She fake-coughed. He wouldn't have noticed he had stopped and stared if she hadn't called him.

"Uh, right, wall." he walked up to the wall and after a simple earthbending form, the hole in the wall was covered, looking as good as new. He turned back to the girl and asked slightly embarrassed "So... where did she go?"

"She was kind enough to give you the answer." she handed him a small parchment with black inked words scribbled in it, in calligraphy unknown to him, probably the girl's.

" 'Echo' ? What is that?"

"A very famous dancehall here in the city."

"... in the Lower Ring. That is _so_ Toph." He snorted as he read the indications on the rectangular piece of paper.

"She can be such a brat sometimes." He mumbled to himself as he excused himself from the older girl and left to his room to grab a shirt to dress under his garment '_Catch me if you can Twinkle Toes!_' he imitated her in his head as he left the boarding house.

* * *

'Echo' was the name of her favourite dancehall. It was built deep underground; the walls, ceiling and ground were all made of rock and only the ground had been touched by earthbenders so it could be clean of holes and imperfections. The rock everywhere really made Toph feel right at home.

The dancehall was very big, big enough to keep all the good, the evil, the young, the old, the rich and the poor. On one of the walls was the bar, offering a wide selection of richly coloured and awfully tempting drinks; on the centre of the cave, rose from the ground the space dedicated to dancing. It was an enormous square platform that could be accessed from all sides via a simple looking stairway. From the walls of the cave, sprouted green crystal shards; these, offered an emerald glow that served as lighting to the dancehall. This last detail Toph didn't find so relevant, of course.

It had been baptized 'Echo' because of the music. Instead of leaving a band to play in a podium, the different musicians were scattered throughout the walls of the cave. The whole cave was actually a tunnel complex: there was a main tunnel that lead to the dance hall and gave access to the surface, and then there were other tunnels only allowed to be ventured by the musicians or staff. Each tunnel lead to a specific chamber of a specific musician, these chambers could be seen from the dancehall as spherical structures built on the walls with some holes in them, where the sound produced escaped. The chambers were also strategically built, so the music would echo through the crystals and rock, making it entrancingly loud and much more enjoyable.

Toph was here, inside the large cave/dancehall, waiting for that airhead. She swore revenge and revenge she will have; he made her participate in activities she knew she wouldn't like, Of course, she enjoyed his company even though she would never say it out loud, but that doesn't change the afternoon she experienced.

Maybe she wasn't entirely mad at him. Maybe she was just... jealous.

'_Jealous...'_

She repeated the word in her mind as she cracked her neck and closed her eyes. Yes... that, as much as she despised to admit it, was probably the word. She was mad at him for forgetting her; she was blind and wasn't able to enjoy the moment with half the quality, the view that moved him so much it made him fall asleep. The view that made him forget her.

This much made _absolute _sense to her.

So in the end, she was jealous... of the view?

She laughed through her nostrils.

'_Well that _is_ stupid. No way in hell I'm getting jealous at something like that. Actually, scratch that. I'm NOT jealous at something Twinkle Toes did. I'm MAD at something Twinkle Toes did.'_ She smirked '_Yeah, that sounds way better.'_

She tapped her foot on the ground for what felt like the hundredth time and felt for the Avatar. Many people jumping and moving their feet up in the dance floor made her head ache with all the different vibrations she could feel. She had to focus on just Aang's light feet. No results, this caused her to lower her body and rest her head on her crossed arms on top of the counter, her loose hair splattered like a dark halo all around her. She still had to get used to that. People kept on saying she looked prettier this way, but she just thought the long, annoyingly smooth hair got in the way.

"Rough day?" a hoarse voice spoke on her ear. Her head shot up in surprise but she didn't move any other part of her body.

She filled him out: tall guy with buff stature, judging from the voice he was probably three or four years older than her, his heartbeat was calm (she figured he had probably started conversations with complete strangers many times) and his breath had a slight stench of alcohol in it. She didn't like the description she got, but she did like the rain of ideas rushing in her mind; this boy could be very useful in the future, so she decided to play along.

She changed her position, so that her elbows were resting on the table and her head was placed in both her hands.

"How did you guess?" she tried her best tired voice.

"It seems like a saber-tooth moose lion has played tag with you. That and you look like you've been given a lot of shit from your boss at work." He spoke. She had one foot on the support bars of her stool and the tips of her toes of her other foot touching the ground, in order to feel him.

She smiled at the perfect analogy the boy had accidentally created. No matter if he had unintentionally deduced a good analogy or not, his vocabulary was very limited to curses and common words... and that was one more reason why Toph didn't like this boy.

"Well, how did you guess...?"

"I always act like that when my day turns into crap." He fidgeted in his seat, searching for a more comfortable position, one that allowed him to look at her directly and to be closer to her. "Maybe we work in the same place..." he said thoughtfully, probably with his free hand scratching his unshaved beard, the one he didn't shave because most women liked it that way.

"I don't think so."

"Why don't you tell me your name? That should solve it."

She hid her frown with her hair. She was figuring this guy out too easily: he was probably really handsome and thought that will be enough to get him through life, so he completely forgets his brains at home. He curses a lot, thinks relationships are for fools and lives life like a really big party.

But she could still put him to good use. _'Anything to irritate Twinkle Toes..._" she thought.

"Or maybe I could tell you the place where I work... that should solve it even better." She turned her face to him and patted her eyelashes twice, slowly and discretely. She wanted to keep the act, but she didn't want him to 'win' her that easily.

"... yeah. That should do it too." He seemed a little thrown off in the beginning, if it was by her persistence or by her looks, she couldn't tell. But she did feel him go tense for a few seconds as soon as she turned to him.

She took a few seconds pondering if she could tell him the truth or not.

"I work for the king. I'm his right hand, his adviser, whatever your highness needs." She opted for her answer being a truth with clouded details.

"Oh. Well then I guess we don't work in the same place."

She didn't laugh, like most of the girls usually do when they meet a guy and felt like they were getting some that night. Instead, she answered a quiet and bored 'guess not' as she changed her position to scratch the surface of the counter with her nails.

"I noticed you have beautiful eyes. I don't think I have ever seen such big and pale green eyes before."

_'Oh! Burn...' _Now he was trying to be poetic in his flirting, needless to say he was failing miserably. He was only digging his own grave.

"Really? I wouldn't know." She decided to let some of her irritation she tried so much to hide dissipate through her voice, though he mistook it for irony.

"Oh please don't tell me you never noticed. I don't know why you hide them beneath your hair," his hand started to move towards her face, probably to put the strands of hair behind her ear.

'_What, seriously?! Don't tell me you haven't figured it out yet' _"Oh, I really don't mind it." She answered, moving the hair with her own hand before he could touch her.

"What? Everybody hates to have hair in front of their eyes, they can't see that way."

"...I can't see with or without hair." She tried desperately to keep herself from face-palming after every statement he made.

"What, are you blind or somethin'?" He laughed, probably far too hard. She didn't laugh along with him, instead just 'stared' at him, her face straight "Wait... You are?" she felt him get close to her, far too close for her liking, so she backed away and retorted:

"Surprise, surprise..."

He was silent for a while, well not really. He tried to speak, but only uttered the first syllables of words she couldn't recognize; he only stuttered and let absolute nonsense out of his mouth.

Typical.

Seriously, what was she expecting? To start a conversation with a total stranger and find somebody that intrigued her completely? Somebody intelligent, so intelligent that could understand her jokes and answer her back? Somebody wise who knew so many things that made her wonder if they could be true, somebody that could teach her as much as she taught him. Somebody who was an earthbender like her, so he could understand her passion and her reliance to her element, somebody that wouldn't underestimate her for being blind. Somebody who she could grow to trust with all of her might?

'_Aang, if you don't show up in the next thirty seconds I swear I'll drink till I pass out. I swear it on my _jugs._ So, if you don't want me hangover tomorrow, I suggest you _fart_ your way here.'_

"Hey, are you okay?" the voice of the boy beside her seemed awfully low, so she figured he was probably pretty close to her too. She felt his hand on her back as proof of her theory.

She hadn't known how long she'd space out, seemed like fifteen minutes though it probably had been only a minute or two. He seemed to have finally found the right selection of words to apologize to her about not noticing her blindness (despite all the obvious evidence) because he was awfully close to her and was _touching _her, something very few had the prowess to achieve. And since she hadn't punched him off of his stool, she had probably told him things like 'it's okay, I don't mind' during her catatonic state.

"How did you get blind?" he started to rub her back softly, his fingers barely touching her, which meant he wasn't trying to push his luck at all (to her surprise) which caused her to not mind the gentle touch (this day was full of surprises).

"I was born blind." She answered calmly _'Not a man of many words, but a man of many _hands_...'_

"So you're a politician, right?" he interrogated some seconds after getting the answer for his first question. She figured he had changed his plan of harsh, straight forward approach into a more slow and cautious one because he was, at least, smart enough to notice he wasn't doing a particularly good job a few minutes ago.

"What?"

"You're blind and you work for the king. So... you can't be part of the army."

"I'm blind yes, but I'm an earthbender too. I see with my bending, I sense the vibrations on the earth. Sorta like seeing with my feet."

"Oh. You're an earthbender... who sees... with her feet. Yeah that makes perfect sense." He let out a low laugh and she felt him fidget closer to her, his fingers starting to scratch her back in a whole.

"Ahem best-in-the-world ahem." She fake-coughed, leading a hand to her mouth. He laughed at this, and she thought for a while if the laugh was as genuine as it seemed.

"So... you see with your feet?"

"Yep."

"So you _can_ see me?"

"Only the outline, I can't get any colours or details like that."

"Okay... So...can you... dance?" he asked, stopping his scratching.

She thought for a moment. Was she really going to do this? Why would she want to dance with this chump if the point was to use said chump to cause jealousy on Aang? He was a no show, so it was useless to keep up the act... so she could just turn him down now and drink till she passes out or-

Weak vibrations, feathery touches on the earth not so far away from her.

She froze.

Her blood stopped flowing.

Her breath got caught in her throat.

A smile crept on her face.

'_Better late than never.'_

"Oh, why YES! Of course I can dance! Let's go! I wanna dance, c'mon!" she jumped off the stool and grabbed him by the hand, leading him towards the dance floor.

* * *

Aang was highly annoyed. He was to find his friend so he could dive beneath his sheets. He didn't care what would be the cost of her forgiveness: a sparring match, a week as her servant, kneeling down and ranting on how awesome and badass she was... he didn't care. He just wanted to go to bed so he would be fresh for travels tomorrow morning.

But, as fate would have it, he was having troubles finding Toph in such a crowded place as the dancehall she said she was. He would stop to enjoy the architecture if he wasn't in such a hurry.

He was in the entrance of the dancehall, gawking at the throng of people dancing to the rhythm of the drums. His morale was slowly going down as he stared at the never ending masses of brown and black hair.

'_Monkey Feathers! It's like all of Ba Sing Se is inside this hole!' _He thought as he massaged one of his temples. He entered an earthbending stance and tapped his foot on the ground, closing his eyes to feel the vibrations.

'_It's no use... there's too many people. I'm no Toph, I can't sense as good as she can.'_ He leaned onto a pillar and dug his fingers onto his skull, as if it was going to fix the problem, only to slap himself and shake his head several times, pulling the negative energy way from him.

'_Ugh, c'mon! She's a barefoot blind brunette no bigger than an armchair! Somebody like that can't be too hard to find!'_

He dived into the crowd, scanning every face he came upon, sometimes getting funny looks from the people he stared at. He came to a halt near the bar, a few feet away from the counter. There was a pair of young adults drinking and laughing like maniacs, probably already intoxicated, sitting on two stools on the edge; a lonely old man chugging on a bottle of sake all by himself on another end, and a couple sitting very close to each other in the middle. She seemed very bored, bothered even, while he was almost glued to her, whispering in her ear, always with a sly smirk. One of his hands altered between scratching certain spots in her back and combing her black loose hair with his fingers.

Aang felt a certain curiosity towards the couple, not at the closeness or the caresses but more to the aura of the girl; it intrigued him, made him want to know why was the girl allowing such a douche to touch her when it was so obvious she didn't want him anywhere near her. She had her back to the airbender, but he could guess she had her elbows resting on the counter. Her back was slightly hunched; one of her legs escaping from the green and yellow dress was slightly bent so the toes of her bare foot were touching the ground.

'_WAIT. Black hair? BARE foot? TOPH?!' _ He froze in place, his eyes assaulting the girl, searching for something that would prove him wrong. '_It can't be her! S-she doesn't wear dresses... nor does she let her hair down! Plus there are thousands of people with black hair an- and she can be an earthbender! It can't be Toph! It's not Toph.'_ He convinced himself, his eyes never leaving the girl. He looked away, figuring the guy she was with would probably notice any second now, and if he saw Aang basically eating the girl with his eyes, he would probably get very pissed.

She stood up, rather fast and pulled the guy's hand towards the centre of the cave, where the dancing occurred. And it was during those brief seconds before the girl entered the sea of people, completely leaving his sight, that Aang got perplexed by the girl's godlike beauty. He hadn't seen her face, her hair was hiding it. And, _spirits_, what beautiful dark hair she had; the way it naturally swayed whenever she moved, the way it gleamed in the dim light... it was all so beautiful to Aang, he thought he was seeing a mirage, like he did in the swamp with Toph.

An astounding mirage wearing a green and yellow dress with Earth Kingdom geometrized patterns and a brown cloth tied around her waist. It seemed far too perfect on her: not too tight, nor too loose. All of her was covered in the most porcelain-like skin he had ever seen, so captivating it made Aang want to see more of it, like the one on her back that her hair was easily hiding due to its long length.

Hormones started to go hyper.

Aang couldn't tell if it was her figure or her aura that stunned him so much, but all he knew was that for those small three seconds, his eyes practically gorged out of their orbits just to gawk at the beautiful girl. How the dress hugged her hips and flat stomach, defining her round medium breasts. How her arms and legs escaped the fabric, exposing to the world that beautiful skin of hers...

Oh, how jealous he was of that dress right now... it got to be so close to her, to touch, to feel, to smell and taste her...

He shook his head fast, trying to pull the image out of his head. This wasn't normal. He was an Air Nomad by the Gods and Spirits! He ought to control his earthling desires, plus she was a complete stranger! How could he be so hypnotized by a girl whose face he didn't even see? And why did he have a cliché and awfully lame moment right now, a moment like those you only read about in romance novels or see in the theatre?! All of this was beyond him, but he justified his actions with his age and the constant _needs_ this phase has brought him.

He canalized his energies in finding his friend instead. Fighting the urge to turn back and look at the girl in green dress again, he found his way towards the bar. He placed his palms on the counter and called for the bartender.

"Good evening." He politely greeted as soon as the young adult, probably in his early twenties, approached while drying a glass with a towel.

"Hey. What can I getcha?" he chimed in.

"Nothing, really. I just need to know if my friend's been here recently," At this the boy's smile faded away and made room for a frown, but Aang ignored it, thinking the guy just wanted to get some money in his pocket and thought he was slowing him down. So he kept going "I'm sure you know her, Toph Bei Fong? She comes here a lot?"

"Look buddy, you come to a dancehall you have to buy something. It's the law around here. So what can I get you?" he asked again, the correct pronunciation of the words evidencing his mood change. He turned around to place the glass on a drawer and the towel near a sink, and then turned back to Aang and mimicked his stance.

"Fine, I'd like some water then. Please." The man scoffed and prepared him a glass of water. Aang swore he was mumbling some ungrateful things in his breath, but once again he chose to ignore it. "Now that I've bribed you, can you please tell me if you saw her?"

"Look, first of all, you bribed nobody. You came to a dancehall and decided to get _water_ of all things and I bet it's just to get on my nerves." it was getting hard to ignore all the bad vibes this guy was sending towards the Avatar. That was another thing, did this ingrate even know who he was talking to? "Second of all, it's my job to serve drinks to a gazillion people every night. Do you seriously think I stop and ask a girl's name just because she comes to this place a lot?"

Aang didn't have to come to dancehalls often to know how the services of a bartender was, as much as this guy denied it, the monk knew he probably started conversations with a lot of his costumers, otherwise the night would be completely unbearable. Aang couldn't understand; why was this man lying? Was he trying to protect her somehow? Did he think he was a creeper who wanted to do..._things_... to Toph? Was it worth it to try and explain the situation? Aang was too infuriated with this man to even consider the possibility, so he decided to excuse himself, take his glassof water with him and lean on a column near the exit, higher ground, where he could see better.

But no such luck. He sighed and took a few gulps of his water, realizing he was right where he had been in the beginning, seeing the crowd jump up and down while he looked around in search for a certain earthbender which just seemed to escape this dimension.

"Looking for someone...?" he heard someone ask behind him. Once he turned around, he swore his pants were far too tight.

* * *

Toph felt really weird, rocking forth and back with this boy. Her feet were mimicking his, his hands were on her hips and hers were on his neck, which was extremely uncomfortable because he was so incredibly tall. He often whispered in her ear things she didn't really pay attention, not because she was mad at him, she wasn't anymore and decided to let his constant flirting slip; it was because all she felt was Aang, Aang, _Aang..._ The monk was finally here, inside the dancehall and he had seen her! And he was so shocked to see her like this, his heart skipped a beat.

'_Probably didn't recognize me...'_ she smirked at the thought. While dancing, she was actually sending vibrations around her to feel Aang's every move. She had seen him go to the bar and have a fiery discussion with the bartender. She should have warned him that he was coming, now he was forcing Aang out because he probably thought the Avatar was going to do something to her.

And then she had seen him walk up towards the exit. This alarmed her; was he going to give up on searching for her and go back?

'_Oh, hell no!' _

This couldn't happen! Screw the plan; he wasn't going to leave when she was just a few feet away! But for that she had to get rid of the problem holding her right now, literally.

"Listen... I gotta go..." she didn't have time to make up a good excuse.

"Really? Why?" he insisted, pulling away so he could look at her face, his hands still on her hips.

"I have to... I-" _'Think, think. C'mon this isn't hard!' _"Have important things to do tomorrow, so bye." '_So much for thinking. Bah, I don't care! Screw you boyo! I have so much more _interesting_ people to hang out with!'_

While walking away from the confused boy, she thought at how girly and needy she was acting. How could she be like this towards Aang?! Was it that possible for her to miss him like this? _'Well of course... he would be so much more fun than that dumbass. So... it's no problem to think like this right?' _She thought, while walking up to Aang's location.

* * *

The woman in front of Aang was downright gorgeous. A stunning brunette with hypnotizing light-brown eyes and a provocative smirk stood in front of him, her _very _developed body hugged tightly by a black and red dress.

'_Good gracious, what a pair of... well everything!' _he almost drooled_ '__Wow, wait a minute! I didn't think that just now! What, in Gyatso's name, is wrong with me and women lately?! First Toph, then the girl in a green dress and now this lady who is probably five or six years older than me and yet is checking me out like crazy!' _he shook his head, again. Shaking his head is proving to be a very effective method to quickly morph back to the state of respectable young Avatar.

"O-oh um... I-I was... well, you know..." he stuttered out, scratching the back of his neck and almost dropping the glass to the ground.

"Yes?" she placed a hand on one of her hips, a smirk playing on her red lips, her eyes not contradicting her intentions.

"I-I was... drinking WATER! Water, I was drinking! And-and... looking for s-somebody too!"

"Oh... two things at the same time. Seems like a tough task, maybe I can help?" she came in closer and placed her hand on his arm, squeezing it. Aang felt really uncomfortable with the really small distance between them and started to feel his cheeks heat up.

"Hmm...? What do you say...?" her hand climbed up to his shoulder. Aang laughed nervously and blushed even harder when he noticed her action had forced him to lower down to her level, so eye contact was easier. Of course, this made the distance between the two decreased even more.

"O-oh, ah, I-I r-really don't think... that... um..." he tried to avoid her gaze but found that looking at other places was a worse idea, because her dress was really tight on her and Aang found it hard to not look at both breasts squashed by the fabric of the black dress.

'_**Oh Spirits, BOOBS! HUGE. ROUNDY. BOOBS!**_

And just as they were mere inches away from his eyes a few seconds ago, they were now near ground level as the girl shrunk to the ground. She yelped in surprise and struggled to get her lower half out of the earth. Aang looked around and found Toph, with her hair down and wearing a green and yellow dress just a few feet away. She was in a basic earthbending stance, a grossed out and angry look on her face, veins pumping wildly in her red temples, her hands were shaking.

"He doesn't need your help; he already found what he was looking for. Right, Twinkle _Dick_...?"

* * *

Zuko was sprawled in his bed, dishevelled sheets stuck to his sweaty bare back. His tongue was dry, his throat was on fire, his mind was dizzy. An empty bottle of fire whiskey rested on his nightstand, the weak flame of the lamp made reflections on the glass. The orange, the yellow and the red... they reminded him of so many things...

He stared at the reflections on the bottle for a while; his eyelids felt heavy moments after. His intoxicated mind forced the whispered tune out of his lips:

"In the house of upside down..." the words dragging out of his throat, only audible to himself and the misery around him "Cellar's top floor, attic's ground."

The reflections reminded him of Mai and him, the discussion they had a few hours ago, the loud insults and hateful words they had shared.

"_You are turning into a workaholic Zuko!"_

The endless piles of sheets of paper and scrolls filled with black words he knew by memory because he had read said paperwork so, so many times.

"_You don't sleep, you don't eat... look at those bags under your eyes! Look at your skin! It's all dirty and yellow! You look sick!"_

'_I'm sorry Mai...' _he apologized the screaming voice in his head.

"_Are you trying to end up like Azula?!"_

'_So sorry...' _he curled up into a ball, hugging himself, soothing himself, protecting himself from all the agony his life had brought him.

"_I go to bed alone, I wake up alone, I eat alone... I'm starting to think I'm single!"_

'_So, so, so sorry!'_

"_I know he was your father and... this is the least you can do for him. I know you are the Fire Lord, I know you have a lot of responsibility towards your people and your family... I know all of that, okay? I know! But you just push yourself too far! Do you want to kill yourself?!"_

"In the house of upside down... laughing cries – "

"_You don't even hang out with me anymore! Your _girlfriend!_ Instead you are trading me for that waterbender!"_

"- and smiles frown."

"_How does she help?! What can she do so well that you spend every second of your, oh so busy life, with her?!"_

"In the house of upside down... found is lost – "

Mai was slipping through his fingers. His father was dead. His people were turning against him. Azula was surrounded by darkness.

"- and lost is found." He finished his lullaby and tried to calm down.

He opened his eyes, his vision watery due to the tears. He cleaned his eyes and picked himself up from the wet pillow and sweaty sheets; he dragged his broken, drunk and tired body towards his desk and put on the red and yellow robe formerly resting on the chair near the desk. He wobbled towards the large windows on the wall of his bedroom and pulled up the blinds, pulling the curtains away so he could watch the night sky and his city. Then, he opened the glass doors and stepped out into his balcony.

It was so peaceful, so quiet... contrary to Zuko's heart and mind. As he looked closely to the main wall of his palace, he could see some large, red words painted on it.

It struck his curiosity, so he jumped down, firebending out of his palms and feet to hover towards the wall. A skill he could perform easily if his mind wasn't in such a haze.

But even in this state of mind, the red-paint splattered letters were too big to ignore, too easy to read.

The scream died in his throat before he let it out, the tears tickling his eyelids were forced back down. He couldn't cry, he couldn't scream, he couldn't think... the only thing he could do was stare dumb-founded and slide his hand down the fresh paint.

'TRAITOR'

* * *

**Updated in 12 of June.**

**The song "The House of Upside Down" belongs to BioShock 2, because I am a huuuge BioShock fan and I guess while I was writing this I couldn't fight the urge to place a BioShock reference.  
**

**Also, do you think I portrayed Toph's character well in this chapter? Do you think she would be infuriated by something like that, which forced her to act like this? I know Toph will always have a childish and immature part on her character, because she is an only child, daughter of an important and rich family... I just wondered if I wrote well...**


	6. Flicker of a Flame

Chapter 6: Flicker of a Flame

She was sitting next to him at the bar, sipping on a drink. He was sitting with his back straight, playing with his fingers and striking fearful glances at her figure.

"You look... very nice tonight... N-nothing like you." Aang awkwardly started a conversation.

"What do you mean nothing like me...?" Toph growled.

"P-please don't take me wrong! It's r-really nice! I-it's just..."

"What?! It's just what?! Spit it out already!" she impatiently barked at him and heard him take a breath before blurting out his answer.

"I'm not used to seeing you like this!"

"Oh, really? Neither am I." She attempted at rolling her eyes.

"Toph... please. I'm complementing you here..." he pleaded.

"Yeah, yeah... you're trying to buy me back, that's what it is."

He smashed his head against the counter, between his clenched fists.

"You brought this to yourself." She defended herself, taking a sip from her drink afterwards.

"WHAT, IN THE NAME OF MY ANCESTORS, HAVE I DONE WRONG NOW?! Okay, I understand that you are pissed at me for falling asleep a couple hours ago, and I've already said I was sorry about that, but now what have I done?!" he yelled at her, his hands always either waving around or clutching his skull.

"You still owe me for that one. Right now, baldy, what you did was drool all over some random girl's boobs!" she was gesticulating as much as he was at this point.

"Oh, you are one to talk! That guy was ALL OVER you and you didn't move a finger to push him away!"

She smiled behind her bangs and contained her urge to laugh. Her plan of causing jealousy on him worked out even without her knowing of it...

"I can do whatever the hell I want! I could kiss the guy next to me right now or sexually harass him and you couldn't say a damn thing about it, because it's none of your business who the hell I involve myself with." Her voice was strict, even though all she wanted was to roar with laughter in his face "You, Sex Guro, are a completely different case. You know why...?"

He couldn't defend himself, you can't argue about something when you are wrong. She was right of course, he shouldn't have gave in to such carnal needs... it was unlike him. It was just that... a new side of Aang seemed to have sprouted just a few years ago... A side of Aang that was filled with lots _hormones_, which lead to dirty thoughts, naughty dreams and looking at places in women he really shouldn't look. He didn't know if she knew about this, she probably didn't... otherwise, she would have understood his situation.

"Yes, because you are the Avatar. And also an Air Nomad, let me add! Oh how proud must your ancestor's be of the last of their kin's true interests..." she tapped her chin.

"You're right... I... I am not going to argue about this." He placed one of his hands on his temple and looked at her from the corner of his eyes, waiting for a snappy comeback. When it didn't come, he proceeded "You're right! There! You won! What do I have to do to make it up for you?"

One of the hands she had resting on her lap came to her chin as she raised her eyebrow thoughtfully.

"I spent the afternoon with you... it's only logical that you hang out with me now."

"What?! Toph, the only reason I came here was to bring you back to the boarding house so we could have some sleep! We start a three day journey tomorrow!"

"So what? Never slept less than seven hours in your life...?" she was smirking now "Hey Douchebag, could you bring a cactus cocktail?"

"Coming right up, Dead-Eyes." Answered the bartender with the same happy tone from the beginning of the conversation the two had shared.

"Dead-Eyes? Isn't that what Sokka always calls you?"

"Yeah, those two have similar minds."

"They're both crazy you mean?"

"Yup." She chuckled and he smiled.

She was offering him her profile, just like she had done a few moments ago. He smiled; he still couldn't believe that that girl in earthbending clothes, with her hair up in a messy bun and with dirty feet, was this girl sitting in front of him, in an elegant dress, with black healthy hair and discrete make up. He was mesmerized at how the girl had changed; she still had her stubborn and determined attitude and her love for her element. But she was different; he truly believed she had accepted the fact that she was a woman. How? He really wanted to find out but was afraid she might take it the wrong way.

He snapped back to reality when a wide, but small glass was placed in front of him. Inside, he could see a lot of ice cubes, a straw and a green liquid.

"Toph, your drink." He slid the glass towards her, but she raised a hand leading him to a halt. She was grinning widely.

"It's not mine, Twink, it's yours."

"What?! What about all that 'you're the AVATAR!' talk?! I can't drink alcohol!"

"Now listen here Twinkle Toes; one thing is to ravish a woman's breasts with your eyes," He winced at her blunt assumption "another completely different thing is to have a little drink." She led her hand towards the glass and shoved it back to him.

"Toph... I can't drink this. Remember what happened to Sokka all those years ago?"

"Oh that. Yeah I know, he drank the juice directly from the cactus. Of course he went bananas, or better yet, cactus."

"You're making bad jokes like him." He laughed.

"You laughed, I don't care! As long as somebody laughs, it's not a bad joke!" she contradicted him, not hiding her amusement.

He looked down at the fresh looking drink and gulped nervously.

"Go ahead Twinkles, you can drink. It's not poisoned. And you won't get drunk with something like that, nor will you hallucinate, the fruit has been [COPIOUSLY] prepared so that the juice could be consumed without secondary effects." She grinned at him "Trust me."

He stared at those patient pale eyes one last time before inhaling a deeply and taking a tiny sip of the nice smelling drink through the straw. How could this woman make him throw all the Air Nomad rules and traditions to hell, he didn't know. All he knew was that the drink was awfully tasty.

"Hmm...!" he hummed while still tasting the remnants of the tropical beverage.

"Aha! You liked a drink! Oh noes Aang, what would your people think?!" she faked a panicked squeal. At this he opened his eyes wide in recognition of his shameful acts and almost spat the second sip he had been taking, but decided to swallow first before letting out a horrified scream.

"OH NO! YOU'RE RIGHT! TOPH, YOU PERVERTED DEMON! WHAT HAVE YOU MADE ME DO?!" he led his hands up to his head and turned in her direction when he heard her laugh "HOW DARE YOU LAUGH?!"

"I can laugh because I was joking and you went all 'Oh no, I'm going to be cursed!' and whatnot."

"You just love messing with me don't you...?" he relaxed in his stool and timidly grabbed the glass again, taking his third sip and this time, in order to avoid further mockery from his companion, he decided to express his pleasure mentally: '_Monkey-Feathers, this is good!'_.

"Oh, you know it!"

She was grinning at him her typical grin, the one he had first seen in that Earth Rumble Arena. For an instance he was completely drowned in unavoidable memories of the past, which led to him having a completely crazy idea. It was beyond crazy actually, and the more he thought of it the more he thought that Toph had lied about the drink's alcohol not hitting him immediately.

Yes it was a crazy idea, but wasn't he as well? Wasn't that the definition of the times he had spent with her? All the scamming, all the pranks, saving the world at the age of twelve? Yes it was a crazy idea, she had that effect on people, to make them think and do crazy things with her carefree and independent way of living.

So since he had such an insane idea, and since they were in such a bonding moment, he might as well try.

"You think you're so great -"

"I am."

"You are not!"

"Oh yeah?! Tell me one thing, just ONE thing you can do that I can't and we'll see if I'm great or not! And firebending, waterbending and airbending don't count!" she challenged him, now completely facing him with her hands planted firmly on her knees.

And now was the time to put his plan in action.

"Dancing." He said confidently, looking intensely at her blind grey-green eyes. One of them twitched in irritation at his response and she frowned.

"I can dance." She growled adamantly.

"Oh really?" he tilted his head and put as much doubt as he could in his voice.

"Yeah, really."

He looked at her for a few seconds and then took one long sip from the drink she had offered him, as if to gather courage, and then let go of the glass only to take hold of one of her hands and standing up from his stool. She raised one of her eyebrows at this and was just about to protest when he cut her off.

"Show me." And he pulled her towards the crowd of people. Knowing her, she would've tried to yank her hand off or earthbend him towards the moon, why she hadn't done any of that, Aang didn't know. Maybe she didn't mind dancing with him... maybe she was finally opening up to somebody and the monk had to admit, he truly felt honoured to be that someone, to see the Toph she hid beneath and not only the one on the outside. Or maybe it wasn't anything like that, maybe she just didn't have the chance to do any of those violent things because everything happened so fast and she was still rationalizing.

Yeah, that was probably it.

'_Toph? Giving me a chance? Pfff, what a joke... she'd rather have Sokka dance with her, I bet.'_

Although, in Toph's mind there weren't any thoughts like that, all she was thinking about was how soft and beautiful his hands felt like. She had held his hand before, but that was when they were kids and his hands were chubby and covered in baby skin. That had completely changed during the years: his hands grew bigger, his knuckles turned salient, his fingers were slender, the skin covering them had turned into a soft texture and hid a collection of strong and skilful bones...

She was all too happy to let him hold her other hand (more soft skin for her) but felt embarrassed when his thumbs started to slowly brush across from her map of criss-crossing scars covering her fingers and palms, diminishing in number as soon as they reached her forearms. He gasped in shock.

"Toph... your hands... what happened to them?" he yelled at her above the noise.

"Earthbending happened." She answered as nonchalantly as she could.

He was in loss of words, this only proved how much she practiced and loved earthbending. He didn't know if he should be happy for her passion or worried if she might kill herself if she went on like this. When he saw her skin in a distance he swore it was beautiful and flawless. It still looked really stunning up close, but he could see a lot more details, details he knew that were so Toph's; like the sturdy muscles she had developed along the years, the scars on her hands and forearms, the rough texture of the skin that covered her angular hands...

"Rock isn't like water or air. It's a solid, hard and almost all the time, very sharp element. You can't be a pussy earthbender and be afraid of getting hurt." She went on.

"I know, I'm an earthbender too. It's just that... that I've never seen this much amount of scars on a bender before."

"I'm not ashamed of them. I couldn't care less if people think ladies shouldn't have such ugly hands, they can kiss my ass. It's part of me, like my healthy coating of earth and my dirty feet." Her grip on his hands tightened as she lowered her head.

Aang was now presenting one of Toph's incredibly rare moments of fragility: when the rock armour she wore on the outside crumbled to show the fragile girl inside, fragile like sand. He felt sort of confused; he had never been there when Toph felt down on herself, it had always been Katara or Sokka that helped her in those moments. So he really didn't know what to tell her in this situation, she was very unpredictable, there is no telling if she can take your help as a sign of pity towards her or not.

So he decided to tell her the truth. Plain, simple truth with no tricks.

"I... don't think your hands are ugly." He got closer to her so he wouldn't need to scream something he only wanted her to hear and started to draw her scars with his thumbs "I think they are original. Like... they are yours and yours alone. Nobody-"

"Well, of course they are, moron. They come out of my arms after all!" she punched him and grinned.

Yup. He tried to help and she punched him. Unpredictable indeed. But punch equals how she showed affection, which meant his compliment hit home.

"Why are we talking instead of shaking our butts?! C'mon Twinkle Toes, show me what you got!" her hand gripped his again and she started to stomp her feet and move her body to the rhythm of the drums.

All the unease he had been feeling in the beginning slowly faded away as he let her lead him in the dance, following her own pace. Time passed with jokes and mockery from both sides.

"So...?" he spoke with as much breath as he could muster "Better dancing partner than that guy ever dreamed of being, right?"

"I don't call you Twinkle Toes for nothing." She thought of bringing up the object of Aang's comment "Damn, you really didn't like that I hung out with that guy..."

"No, it's like you said. It's none of my business who you hang out with." He tried to contain his irritation in a lie she could easily pick up.

"Hmm... crud, I was tempted to say you were jealous back there..."

"M-me?! Jealous?! Why would I be JEALOUS of YOU?! That's ridiculous!" he huffed and she roared with laughter. Next, she got closer to his ear and straddled his neck with her arms, her mouth few inches away from his ear as she teased in a husky voice.

"You know Aang, if all you wanted was to comb my hair, all you need to do is ask..."

At first his body paralyzed to her proximity, she was playing that game again, the one with some exchange of touches and phrases full of hidden meanings, the one he was so sure it was flirting. He wasn't particularly good at it, since he had never been the kind to hit much on girls, he preferred long term relationships. Toph was really good at the game though, so good she even played it with him all shamelessly and openly.

But two could play at that game.

"Personally, I don't think your hair needs any combing." He answered, struggling not to stutter. He then unfroze his muscles and placed both hands on her hips and proceeded dancing.

"Didn't know you were into slow dancing Toph, that is so against your personality..."

"Shut up, this way is easier to talk. My throat hurts already from all the screaming." She said while loosening her grip around his neck, because completely wrapping her arms around it proved to be incredibly uncomfortable, for she had to get on the tip of her toes to do so.

They danced for a very long time, being with Toph _this way_ made him completely forget about his plans of getting a good night's sleep. He had to admit, he had a great time with the girl: they danced (he got really fascinated that she could dance with him even though she was blind), talked about a big variety of topics while dancing and ate a late night snack when they finally decided to leave the dancehall, which Toph was clumsy enough to let it fall to the ground, so Aang shared his.

They were currently walking up the dark and quiet streets of the lower ring. After a few minutes of walking the road, Aang noticed just how chilly the night was at that time and how improperly dressed the girl was for such cold weather. She seemed like she was fighting the cold, yet he could see goose pimples spreading on her arms and a purple tone filling her lips. He immediately proceeded to take of his shirt to offer it to her, pulling it up from his shoulders, leaving him in only the garment he was using in the morning and afternoon.

"Here, put it on." He ordered, poking her arm twice with the piece of clothing.

"You put it on! You're gonna catch a cold and I don't wanna bear your sneezing tomorrow; it sounds like a freaking storm is raging every time you sneeze..." she denied.

"I'm a firebender, remember? I can increase my body heat..." he said, doing so to prove his theory. He would've been able to get much warmer if it weren't for the moon, but he got pretty warm none the less.

Realizing she was almost a block of ice, she roughly shoved the half-way eaten dessert on his empty hand and snatched the shirt out of his other hand, putting it on. This made him smirk victoriously and open his smirk into a smile when he noted how cute she looked on his robes, far too big for her. She punched him on the arm and he figured that would be the best 'thank you' he would get from her.

"So... what happened to the Dai Li?" he started, just to avoid staring at her for too long. He stretched his arm when she raised a hand to get her dessert back. Yes, _her dessert_, because whenever you shared food with Toph, you would always end up giving your part to her.

"Argh... that's a really long story... do you really want to listen?" she protested, taking a bite to her mouth.

"I asked didn't I?"

"Okay... just don't sleep on me again or you are so dead." She pointed her chopsticks accusingly at him and then began "after the end of the war, all the agency was put under arrest. 13 years of prison. Everybody, even Whiskers. I spent most of the time after the war travelling around the world and spreading the word of metalbending, only returning to Gaoling on special occasions."

"You could've visited us! Why didn't you?" he interrupted with a pleading tone.

"Because you were most of the time in the South Pole with Katara. And in case you haven't noticed, that place is filled with snow."

"What's wrong with that? I mean, I know it can be very cold and it's hard to eat something vegetarian in that place but other than that, I think it's cool!"

"You're right. I should pay a visit to that place. Judging from the amount of earth there is in the South Pole, if I'm lucky and feel like digging, I'll find a rock as big as my pinkie." The sarcasm was as clear as water.

"Oh. Yeah... sorry about that." He scratched his bald head.

"No sweat. As I was saying, while I was travelling the world, I found a couple of students and started 'The Bei Fong Metalbending Academy'! So that's how that began."

"And then word spread that there was a school of metalbending and that's how your school gained fame! Because you traveled so much!"

"Yup. Now, when I turned fourteen, my father decided it was a good idea to show me the world of politics, and so he brought me to Ba Sing Se to attend a few meetings with him. It was disgusting... you don't even know. I was forced to look like a _princess,_act like a lady and shut up and listen as my father and the rest of the men in the room lied to each other with all the teeth in their mouths. So I told my father that business wasn't really it for me and-"

"Stop right there. You knew you wouldn't like it since the beginning, why did you do it still?"

"Yes, I knew... but I'm trying to put up in good terms with my family, so I gave my father a chance and, as politely as I could, refused the business life. And so while my father was attending his meetings, I was working with the royal guard and the king himself, in every way that I could. Which proved to be a lot more entertaining and useful." She paused to finish Aang's dessert and give the empty container back to him, which he intended to throw in a garbage can when they happened to walk by one "A year passed like this: metalbending school to Ba Sing Se and then back to the school... problems happened in the big city, as usual, and I told the king maybe he could use some more security around his place... and proposed the return of the Dai Li. He said I was crazy and accused me of plotting against him. I said I could bring the guys to reason and beat Long Feng in three seconds to prove it. I then put them all inside a room and asked them if their allegiance lie within their country or not; those who I could feel go weak, I sent back to prison. Those who were loyal to the Earth Kingdom, got their time in prison reduced to only more six months."

"Wow. Ain't you bossy?"

"Yeah! And it wasn't enough! The corrupted Dai Li along with Long Feng prepared a coup d'état to bring down the king but, once again, the Greatest Earthbender in the World was there to save the king's royal ass..." she smirked pride fully and shrugged.

"You fought all those guys by yourself?!"

"Yup."

"No way. You're full of yourself, I'm sure you had help."

"I would've had help, if my 'help' wasn't all mesmerized by my metalbending... So, I judged the Dai Li's again, and instead of sending the traitors back to prison, I exiled them instead. After that, the agency slowly started to change for the better: Whiskers grew to respect me, which lead to properly advise the king, the agents started to work on serious crimes, the uniforms changed and after a year of loyalty from the agents, I taught them the basics of metalbending."

"But... didn't you have problems from the exiled Dai Li's?"

"Not that I've heard of."

"Oh... so that's how it went. But there's one thing I don't understand... when did you start calling Long Feng 'Whiskers'...?"

"When I fought him the first time, I hit him in some way I totally screwed his moustache." At this he roared with laughter.

"You hit him in the face, and the only thing he was worried about was the moustache?!"

"Sort of like that," she laughed along "He was more worried about his nose, but since you guys always mocked his moustache, I made a joke about it and ended up nicknaming him 'Whiskers'."

They almost missed the boarding house with all the talking. He grabbed her by the arm and announced that they had arrived. Next, they entered and climbed up the stairs towards each their rooms.

"So... nighty night!" she bid him.

"Yeah, you too." But just before she entered her room, he called unto her "You know... I think I had more fun today during the night than during the day."

"I know right?" she smiled "It's like I said, this city sucks during the day."

But just as soon as she said that, she dashed towards the wall to their left and smashed her palms against it, sending the wall flying in many different fragments and creating a ground shattering sound. Aang had watched her confused as she ran to the wall and almost passed out when she destroyed it, but instead decided to shoot a blast of air in order to protect himself from the debris that was heading his way incredibly fast.

"Toph! I know you hate Ba Sing Se, but you don't have to show it!" his scolding fell on deaf ears, for Toph had just jumped out of hole and started dashing up the wall, bending footholds out of the wall. He chased after her with half the difficulty using an airscooter.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! It's the second time you destroy a wall in this boarding house!"

"We have bigger problems than a hole in the wall right now, Aang." She tapped her foot and mumbled a curse under her breath "There was a group of three people, hanging on the wall. Right now they are gone but I think they were spying on us."

"Are you sure?"

"What else could three grown men possibly do in the middle of the night, hanging of the wall of the boarding house where the Avatar and the World's First Metalbender are staying at?" she questioned "One thing is for sure: if Kuei knows of this, there is no way in hell he'll hand us the team of Dai Li's".

* * *

The sun was slowly tickling the clouds; silence filled the air in the capital of the Fire Nation. It had begun to get very dangerous to wander through the streets with all the racket going around, the beginning of a very bloody revolution. Posters with Zuko's face were scattered on almost every wall, X's in red ink crossed on his face; same red ink was filling empty walls or even the ground with words defying his lordship. No deaths so far, but there have been a lot of cases of strong violence between his people: groups of rebels scorched the skins of the members of the new civilization in corners of the dark streets, stupid teenagers used this politic crisis as a reason to wreak havoc, some of them returning home with nightmarish wounds. Women and children were always in danger, it was suffocating...

It seemed as if the story of his nation was always written in blood.

Three days. Three days had passed like this. Dreading silence, people terrified hiding behind locked doors and windows. The investigation had been put into a halt with the rising of the revolution.

On one side, believers of the old ways: generals, soldiers, old people.

On the other side, supporters of the peace policy: philosophers, women, politicians, artists, merchants, reasonable people.

His city was turning into a battlefield and his people were the soldiers participating in this war. The genocide of his dear civilization and he had front row seats for this theatre of bloodshed.

But he couldn't let himself fall to this; he had wept long enough, he had been pummelled to the ground far too many times... it was time for him to fight back his demons. The Civil War that was just about to wage had caused a halt to the investigation and that had given Zuko a lot of hours for him to meditate on the most recent events. Day after day, life had punched him in the gut with his father's murder, the knowledge of his sister's mental coma, his spat with Mai and now the civil war.

He had put the guilt all on himself; for not being there at the right time, for not being competent, honourable or caring enough. But he had to put those to rest. Maybe he screwed up and maybe he didn't, but now wasn't the time to lock himself in a room and cry for how pitiful a Fire Lord he can be and how miserable his life had been since he was born.

'_That would be incredibly selfish. And I know you are nothing like that.' _Katara once spoke to him, in a day where he let his grief lock him in its clutches. These were words his mother would say to him as well, he knew it deep in his heart.

And it was in these people's fireproof belief in him where he found strength and motivation to face this wrathful ocean. His pillars: his mother, his uncle and his friends; they were the ones who had cleansed his heart, he will not let it grow black again.

He won't back down. He will solve this.

He will fight.

He was taken aback when he heard the explosion, not far away from here. He narrowed his eyes and jumped from the balcony of his room to the courtyard of his palace, his cape swirling in the wind, his armour glinting under sun. He started to run in the direction of the explosion.

"What was that?! Zuko! Wh- what the hell do you think you are doing?!" Sokka asked the escaping form of the Fire Lord, standing up from his chair and looking out the window.

"Seemed like an explosion." Suki stood up as well and ran to the door, Sokka following up suit after grabbing his weapon belt and tugging it around his waist.

"Seemed like it was nearby, too!" Katara gasped.

Down in the plaza, the head of Fire Lord Zuko's statue was missing. The neck was black; smoke was coming out of it and a few carbonized minerals were scattered on the ground. The same general who had raised his fist against Zuko a few days ago now had the same fist still aiming at the place where the head used to be, veins still pumping from the hot blood inside, almost transparent lines of grey smoke surging from the big fist.

That was all that was needed to trigger the inevitable battle of beliefs. Fire flew in all directions, fists and feet connected with different parts of human anatomy, even sparks were born from the rare clashing of metal. It didn't take that long until blood started to paint the ground with dots and spots.

Once again, Zuko was forced to roar to stop the fighting, a roar from the beast he kept imprisoned inside of him that split the sky in two. That dark part of him that couldn't fight back all the excruciating pain and uncontrollable anger.

* * *

Aang predicted they would see the Fire Nation soon. His eyes were set on the horizon, his hands held the flying bison's reins. Next to him, hugging to his leg; lay Toph fast asleep with Momo curled up next to her.

She had touched him before: held his hand, hugged him, clang to his arm. But the fact that she was lying down next to him (on Appa's head, he should underline, he always remembered her preferring the saddle to the bison's head) and spooning his leg made him feel completely uncomfortable. He knew that she wasn't doing it on purpose, she was probably just holding him like this because she was tired, wanted to sleep and since Appa's head was a fur mattress, she could sleep much better there than in the hard wood of the saddle. He could also conclude that she was clinging to his leg for security, since she was blind, hated flying and the only thing on Appa's head that she could grab unto was him. The second option were his horns, but Toph obviously labelled his leg as being safer.

But despite all of her innocent touching, what to her was sleeping, to Aang was actually a very big feeling of discomfort that he couldn't release because he didn't want to give bad impressions.

So, the whole three day journey back to the Fire Nation had been completely confusing and awkward to Aang, for the sole fact that she hadn't given his shirt back.

At first, he thought maybe she forgot it back in the city, but then, taking a peek at her packing up for leaving, he noticed some orange fabric coming out of her shoulder bag. It was the day of their departure and it was already pretty late, so it's safe to say that Aang's patience wasn't quite at its peak that day. The fact that she was taking so long to pack added to his bad mood and when he was just about to yell to her about it, as he was entering her room he stopped on his feet when he saw an Air Acolyte shirt. _His _shirt. His bad mood shifted to embarrassment in a matter of seconds and stayed that way for the whole journey.

She didn't bring the matter, so needless to say he didn't either. And it wasn't just his shy nature towards such sensitive topics… it was the fact that it was _Toph_. Never in a million lifetimes had he imagined her doing something as keeping his shirt. He had to admit, nor did he imagine goggling at her or dancing with her.

"Ah, the Fire Nation Capital... finally!" he moaned far too loud, making Appa groan and Momo raise one ear and pop open one eye to check his surroundings. After stretching his little body, the flying lemur hopped to the Avatar's shoulder, greeting him with a series of chirps and clicks.

"Oh, hello there Momo, did you sleep well?" he asked, turning his way and imitating the lemur with a few sounds of his own. This made the small earthbender's hold around his leg tighten and let a muffled groan out. This provoked a sudden raise of the monk's body temperature, especially around his face.

"Can... you... three animals... keep it quiet...?" she asked to the fur covering her face.

"G-good, you're awake! Just in time for Fire Nation at arriving! I-I mean arriving at the..." he couldn't complete his stuttering because of her whole body shaking in laughter against his own.

"Wow, aren't you good with words lately...?" she drowsily asked, bringing herself up and sitting with her legs crossed and grabbing his arm. Aang had breathed out in relief as quietly as he could when she let go of his lower half.

"Ever wondered of making blankets out of Appa's fur?" she asked, capturing some of the fur in her hand.

"Spirits, no!" he gasped.

"Oh well... he would make some sweet blankets..." she yawned again "You think the Dai Li already arrived?"

"I don't think so, we've been flying really fast... I know they can use the earth to travel at a fast pace too, but I think we beat them to it."

"Then we'll have to wait until we can start some serious detective shit?"

"I don't know, we'll see."

Aang whipped the reins, ordering Appa to change his course down to the ground. They had flown past the walls and have just landed in front of the stables. Toph ecstatically let go of his arm and jumped to solid ground, lying down in it and caressing it with her cheek and hands.

"Oh, sweet earth, how much did I miss you!" she sang while kissing the ground.

Aang was too busy being admired by the lack of security around the gates and in the walls to laugh at his companion. It didn't make sense, all the streets were empty, like in the old days, there were no children playing nor families enjoying themselves... if anything, he swore he saw one head hidden behind the curtains peek out the window of a house, pulling them back in place as soon as the young avatar glanced its way. His sight lingered in the dirty window, seconds passed and no movement occurred. He narrowed his eyes.

"Toph, something isn't right." He tightened his grip around his staff.

"- my beloved, my precious, my treasure, my- what? What's the matter?" she asked still lying on the ground.

"I don't know... but something is definitely off... c'mon, we have to see Zuko and the others." He ordered and pulled her up from the ground with only one hand.

They started to walk in a fast pace, that acid in Aang's gut never leaving. He stopped on his heels when his eyes saw all the posters and messages.

"Spirits, Ancestors, Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Monkey Feathers...!" he barely breath in between the startled words.

"What, what?! You're cursing like crazy!" she was starting to get worried too, she could feel all the fearful vibrations of the people hiding in their homes and then, hyper vibrations coming from the plaza entered all of her being "Forget that, Aang! We need to get to the plaza, there's tons of people there and it looks like they're fighting!" she warned and grabbed his wrist, stomping her feet on the ground and launching them up to the sky with a pillar of earth. Aang only had time to make a sideways move with his staff and direct them towards the right direction.

Toph flinched mid-way through the way down due to the earth shaking roar she heard. Aang bended the air beneath them to break their fall and bent his knees when he finally hit the land. Toph mimicked his actions and added a hand to the ground, feeling all around her. Her breath got caught in her throat: there were so many wounded lying on the ground, some of them being stomped over by all the people still standing on their feet and fighting like animals. Zuko, a few feet away from them, seemed like was just about to explode. His heart was pumping blood restlessly, his breathing was pretty ragged and all of his muscles were tensing so much she though he was going to tear them.

He was very, very mad.

"Aang, Toph!" she heard Katara yell from near Zuko and thought of grabbing Aang and joining her only to stop her train of thought immediately when she heard Zuko scream.

"STOP THIS IMMEDIATLY!" he yelled from the top of his fiery lungs. People stopped and stared, using the opportunity to retreat, the pacifists closer to Zuko and his friends, while the rebels were on the other side, bigger in number and hardly wounded. The royal guards stood in between both crowds, swords in hand, feet in a firebending stance.

"There's the traitor! Burn the traitor! Heal the blind!" yelled somebody from the rebel group, crushing the deadly silence Zuko had just created.

"Burn the traitor, Heal the blind! BURN THE TRAITOR, HEAL THE BLIND!" they roared and marched towards Zuko. Fire started to rise from the palms of the guards dividing them and their objective, in response, the firebender rebels readied their bending as well.

"ENOUGH!" this time it had been the Avatar that intervened, he jumped in front of the multitude and smashed his staff on the ground, creating a wall of wind and forcing the rebels to back down "How can you be so selfish, after the life we've given you?! How can you expose your claws at Zuko after the luxurious life he built for all of you?! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" he spoke in a mixture of airbender wisdom and calm, along with firebender rage and hatred.

"We want the Fire Nation back! You stole it from us and we want it back!"

"You cursed our Fire Lord! You made him blind!"

"Traitor! Kill, burn!

Aang wasn't afraid of the rebels; Katara taught him that he was the Avatar and he shouldn't neglect this fact, Toph taught him to stand his ground and face things head on and Zuko taught him that even fire can be tamed but only if you are untameable yourself. So that was what he was going to do, he was going to do he's avatar duty.

But the tall figure of the Fire Lord next to the Avatar stopped the rebels on their march this time.

"You say you want the Fire Nation back. You are all liars. What you want is war." He pointed an accusing finger at his people "Because that's the only way the Fire Nation knows of how to feel alive, with fire and machinery. Maybe that was the way of the past Fire Lords, but it is not my way. My way, is the same of the Avatar, the way of peace and equality."

"I was right! You would rather sacrifice yourself for the avatar and the other traitors than to your country and people!" yelled the messiah-like person from the other day.

"YES! I WOULD!" he spat at him, small embers escaping his uncontrolled breathing. "Because they are as important to me as is this country! You say I'm blind... but you are the ones who haven't opened your eyes yet! I know; it's hard to face that we live in a new world, but you need to open your eyes! The times of my sick family are over!" he now spoke as calmly as he could, for he knew that all the rage in his voice would only fuel the anger of the rebels; rage was his father way, calm was his. He paused and took a breather, Aang placed a hand on his shoulder and soon after he could feel his other friends in line with him. He smiled warmly at them.

"You think... you think that the world is divided. I don't blame you, we've just exited a 100 year old war... what other proof that the world is divided you need? But, I've grown to realize that the world is only divided because we make it out to be... we can't understand each other... that is what I'm trying to end with the help of the Avatar. I hope one day you will understand that..."

There was a moment of silence from the people in front of Zuko, some bowed their heads, others clenched their fists tighter.

"No, Fire Lord Zuko, you are the one who needs to understand things. You need to understand that the land is going weak, that the fire will of our Nation is fading away! We are becoming like all the others and that, sooner or later, you'll realize that in this world, it's impossible for people to truly understand each other. We're too different and we all bear grudges and hatred against other people, no matter how much we try to fight it."

At this, Aang stomped his foot and raised his voice.

"People can't understand each other?! Not in this world?!" he barked "You want a better example than this?" he pointed at himself and at his friends.

"The division of the four nations is your creation, with your wars and bloodshed. But as human beings, we all fail and make mistakes when we are misguided... but to forgive and forget such things is what truly makes somebody strong! Same thing goes for a Nation! You need to understand that your ways were wrong and perverse! My _race_ was destroyed because of your ways; and still, I've forgiven you!"

"Psh... it's your duty to forgive and forget! You're the Avatar!" yelled a rebel.

"SHUT UP! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE ME!" he yelled back, all of the voices of the previous avatars mixed with his own and his arrow tattoos glowing, "You think we are all different, sure we are, on the outside! But if each one of us, me and my friends, were to shed a drop of blood right now you would see that it's all the same! Different on the outside but exactly the same on the inside."

Aang's glare challenged any opposing arguments, it even welcomed them. But then a small chuckle was heard amidst the crowd,

"Pretty words, Avatar. But that is really all they are; words never really bear any meaning," spoke the same voice, mocking and defying the Avatar "This can't be solved like this. Speaking... won't solve anything."

"I will not allow another war." promised Aang.

"Your word isn't the rule."

"But mine is." Spoke Zuko.

"No. It's not." challenged a rebel. And then it was over, they backed away, retreated back to wherever all of this revolution was being planned. The guards didn't go after them and neither did Zuko and his companions, instead he retreated as well, back to his palace along with his friends.

"You did good back there." Aang congratulated, receiving no physical reaction from his friend.

"You both did." Katara encouraged next to Zuko on his other side.

"Aang... I need you to see someone." Zuko mumbled after a while of silence.

"Who?"

"Azula... nothing works on her. Maybe you can do something."

Aang felt a rush of cold energy crawl up his spine. He hadn't seen the girl any time after the war, but he had heard Katara tell the story of how she beat the princess and how she'd react after being so easily defeated.

They entered the palace and all six of them headed towards the girl's chambers. All feeling rather uneasy, even those who had already visited her.

Zuko greeted the bodyguards and they unlocked the doors. He entered, followed by the avatar and then the other four people trailing behind. There she was, in the same position as always: sitting on the bed, her head turned to the window, her eyes dead, her hands folded on her lap. She was wearing another simple dress, her charcoal hair clean and loose, her skin free from all those bruises she had in the beginning.

Zuko had grown to get used to his paralyzed little sister, so he kneeled down in front of her, gently touched her face and slowly turned it so she would 'face' him.

"Hi, little sister. I've... brought somebody to try and heal you..." he looked deeply into those frozen amber eyes and hoped with all his being, that Aang could free her from her torment "You know him... far too well actually. It's the Avatar," he laughed bitterly "who would have guessed somebody who we were always hunting down would come one day to heal us?" he grabbed one of her hands and squeezed it tightly, not really wanting to let go but having to. He turned away so Aang could take a look at her. He gave the Avatar and the princess space and stood next to Katara, the one person who seemed to always be there in these last few days.

"I may be a waterbender, but I'm not that much of a healer... I'll try a different way of healing, a more... spiritual way." He placed one hand on her head, his thumb pressing firmly her forehead, and another hand on top of her heart. Then his tattoos started to glow, and before people could take a wrong impression of what he was doing, he explained "Don't worry, it may look like I'm taking her bending away, but I'm doing exactly the contrary."

"You're... enhancing her bending?" Sokka asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Yes, in a way... I'm giving her some of my own chi, making her flow go hyper. Maybe it will cause a reaction on her. I don't know, I thought that if you could take somebody's bending away, maybe you could over-power it, somehow." He went back to closing his eyes and felt his own energy being drained from his body.

And then, just beneath his hand, he felt her heart punch her ribcage so harshly he thought she was going to kill herself. But he didn't have time to celebrate, feel good about his accomplishment or announce the change of her condition to his friends; because as soon as her heart drummed wildly for a few beats, she blasted a fireball out of her fist with the most intense and powerful fire since Sozin's comet, directly at his chest.

"GET OFF OF ME, YOU SICK FUCK!"

* * *

**Updated in 7 of July.  
**


	7. Questions and Answers

Chapter 7: Questions and Answers

"GET OFF OF ME, YOU SICK FUCK!"

Azula's screeching yell paralyzed everybody present in the room, both emotionally, because she finally awoke from her slumber, and physically because of the brutal fireball that exploded against Aang's chest and threw him at the ground. Blue embers burnt the remnants of his carbonized garment while smoke danced on top of the monk's black chest. He screamed in agony while clutching his injury in a fetal position. After a few seconds, an uncontrollable fear and pure panic rose inside of him when he noticed air wasn't travelling easily to his lungs. He moved his sweaty hands to his neck, his eyes were shut tight, and his whole being was gasping for oxygen.

'_Am I going to die?' _

Those were the only words that crossed his mind, everything else was locked away.

Katara rushed at him, avoiding Azula's fire whips and blasts of fire-breath. She kneeled down next to the panicking boy, her hands moving cautiously, her eyes possessed by an inhuman calm.

Zuko moved to stop his mad sister while she screamed and burned expensive furniture, sheets and other types of fabric that decorated her room. He gripped her wrists and forced her arms up, all the while shouting, trying to calm her. But it was hopeless: as he looked deep into Azula's bloodshot and wide eyes, he could see she didn't want anybody to touch her and, to prove his theory, she spat fire at his face. Zuko lowered himself while still gripping her wrist and then used the opening to spear her on the belly, making them both tumble to the ground.

Sokka was fast to think of a solution, he dashed towards the curtains and ripped them out of their golden poles. Next, he wrapped the curtains around Azula, making sure to keep them extremely tight. He then used Azula's pillow cover to gag her.

Azula's bright ambers burned with fury while she created terrifying muffled screams. The instinct to kill was painted on her eyes.

She was officially insane.

"Zuko, Aang needs help now!" Katara shouted.

"Oh, shit." Mumbled the firebender as he stared wide eyed at the snow white face of the Avatar. He immediately grabbed him bridal style with as much care as he could and ran out the door, Katara rushing after him after putting out the fires with her waterbending.

During all this time, between the screams loud and violent as thunder, the fire emanating heat all around her and her friend slowly dying a few feet away from her; Toph felt so useless it was like she was six again, running away... scared and blind.

* * *

"You, hold his legs. Zuko hold his arms." Katara ordered Zuko and another medic, as soon as the Fire Lord gently placed Aang on top of a metal table with a white cloth on top of it. The walls were made of white tile, there were various tools strange to Zuko's eyes placed neatly on the shelves of the metal furniture or on top of metal tables next to this big, cold, uncomfortable bed Aang was lying on. The whole room felt cold around him and the firebender knew, this was the surgery room.

"He's going to move a lot, keep him still." She ordered once more. "You, bring me a bucket full of water and some big empty container."

Katara bent the water out of her water skin and placed her glowing hands on top of the dying boy's chest. For a few seconds, all that happened was Katara's brows furrowing so hard her forehead muscles started to ache, her hands hovered the boy's chest on various places. A small sweat drop started sliding down the girl's forehead down the bridge of her nose. Suddenly, she bent most of the water inside Aang's carbonized pores and that was when things started going south. A choked scream escaped his mouth and he started to try and squirm himself out of their grip while his screaming multiplied and intensified.

"Hold him still!" Katara struggled to keep control of the water inside Aang "He's wasting his remaining oxygen in screaming, somebody do something or he'll die!"

Time seemed to pass at light speed as people in front of Zuko did things he couldn't possibly understand, all he could see was his friend's face contorting in pain and the medics' and Katara's face completely calm and focused. He knew they had to forget who they were treating, otherwise their concentration wouldn't be at its max, and that was a crucial aspect in a medic's life.

Zuko came to the conclusion that it's much easier to hurt than to heal.

With one swift motion, she raised her hands and pulled the water out of Aang's pores until it was all a bubble between Katara's hands; a painted red bubble with some black particles in it which Zuko couldn't make out what it was. She dropped the water on the wooden bowl the doctor had brought her and bent some clean water out of the bucket and repeated the procedure. This time, Aang didn't express that much pain so Zuko used his more silent state to speak him calming and encouraging words.

Katara repeated the procedure two more times before the water brought out of Aang nothing but a few blood clouds. She then swept her brow, took a deep breath and bent some water inside Aang once more, and this time the glow on her hands intensified, Zuko figured she was healing him on the inside and probably pretty fast, because the glow on her hands was enough to light the whole room. She pushed the water out of him, put it on the basin and placed her hands on her hips, feeling content with Aang's regain of colour and more calm breathing after some minutes. Azula shooting him down right in front of her and this life-death situation she had just experienced were memories still fresh on her mind, and now that she gave it more thought, she was ready to allow herself to be emotional again and so, was ready to burst in tears and laughter and panic all at the same time. But the adrenaline was still pumping in her veins, and that saved her from her emotional outbreak.

As soon as Aang noticed his life wasn't in danger anymore, he curiously and clumsily tried to pull himself up.

"Oh no you don't, you need to rest." Zuko advised, forcing him down "Glad to see you're okay buddy. You gave us a hell of a scare."

"Ka-Katara... what did she-" His voice was hoarse and it hurt just to speak.

"Don't talk, Aang. Save your strength," she said with a hand on his cheek and offering him a smile.

"Could you give him first aid on his outer burn, please?" she turned to the Fire Nation medics.

"Y-yes ma'am." They spoke, astounded by the healer's powers and talent.

Both Katara and Zuko told Aang they still had a problem to take care of and that they had to take care of it now. After promising him that he was going to be okay and back on his feet soon, they started walking out of the infirmary and back to Azula's chambers. They kept a conversation on the way:

"That was amazing what you did there." Zuko congratulated.

"Well, it was my job." She spoke sternly and then, as humbly as she could, she added "I'm not doubting your medics' abilities and knowledge of human anatomy or anything Zuko, but I don't think they could've saved Aang."

"Why's that?"

"You know burns have different degrees, right?" she started "There are superficial burns and there are more dangerous burns that damage not only the outer skin, but the internal one as well. Aang has suffered two burns of this kind by the same person in his seventeen years of life, but this time we were lucky she didn't choose lightning." she bit her lip.

"What do you mean? What would be the difference? She shot me with lightning during Sozin's comet and you could still save me! Why couldn't you save Aang if she had shot lightning?"

"That day, you used the lightning re-directing technique Iroh taught you. But instead of shooting the lightning, you absorbed it, diminishing the damage but suffering a burn all the same. A superficial one. This time, if Azula had shot lightning, it would've pierced Aang clean like a very sharp sword. He didn't have time to redirect it in order to defend himself mainly because he wasn't expecting it... it's weird to say, but we were lucky she shot fire."

"Hmm... I see your point. Fire explodes on contact, lightning pierces."

She nodded.

"What did you do to him just know? Even the medics were confused..."

"They were confused because they have never seen waterbending healing techniques, and that's what I used. When Azula shot him, she damaged his lungs. That's why he was having trouble breathing and could've died. I bent water inside of him to clean him of the blood and damaged muscles or skin.

"Blood?" he gulped before asking.

"Yes, blood. Because she damaged his lungs' tissues, so he could've drowned in his own blood if I hadn't taken it out." She paused "Meanwhile, I was healing his insides as fast as I could. I never bent water inside somebody before... and honestly, I don't want to do it many times, it takes a lot of concentration... and if I lose my focus... the person I'm treating can drown."

"Isn't taking blood out of him dangerous?" he asked, after remembering she mentioned doing such a thing.

"I only took away small quantities; it looked like it was a lot because it was mixed in with the water. Don't worry, he won't die of blood loss. He can recuperate all of it with the right set of meals during his recovery."

"How long until he completely recovers?"

"One, two weeks... around that." She estimated, already making a plan of action in her mind to diminish the time her friend will have to stay in bed as best as she could. But then, the problem that was waiting for them just a few feet ahead entered her mind.

"What will you do to Azula?"

"I'll take her to the hospital she was first at before I arrested her." He explained, a serious tone taking over his voice once more now that the topic was something he understood.

"But how? If you try to transfer her, I'm sure the rebels will do something."

"If they try something, I'll be there to stop it." He promised.

"Are you going to try to heal her of her insanity?"

He was silent for a few moments, searching the ground with his eyes for answers for Katara's question. The idea she was in fact, mad, still was foggy in his head.

"I don't know. I think she is a threat... and..." he licked his lips and avoided her piercing blue eyes "and she must stop being a threat."

"Okay... so what are you going to do?"

Zuko stopped on his feet, looking forward, to the future, determined. Although, deep inside, hesitant.

"After Aang is healed... he is going to take Azula's bending."

* * *

A week had passed painfully slow. The days filled with horrid clashes against the rebels and constant trips to the infirmary in the palace. The civil war was getting more and more dangerous as time dragged on; the rebels had no problem with showing their hatred for the regime, so they planned manifestations on a regular basis, put up humiliating posters of Zuko, sometimes they acted violently around the pacifist groups by purposely bumping into them, throwing rocks at their windows or verbally assaulting them. Of course, actions like these led to bloodbaths like the one that happened when Aang and Toph arrived at the capital.

The hospitals received injured people regularly and families wept for the relatives this war had took from them. Guards patrolled the streets with an iron hand and acute vision, while the royal grounds were off-limits to anyone who was a stranger.

The Dai Li, instead of inspecting Ozai's murder, now served as guards.

Toph was on her way to check on Aang. She found these last few days psychologically exhausting because of the monk's state. She visited him more often than her friends, which was new to her and to her comrades. Katara even asked her once if she slept on the infirmary one day, when she saw the earthbender sitting next to the resting airbender both on the evening and on morning after.

Toph didn't remember worrying so much about someone in her life.

And that's how she was feeling right now, extremely worried. This, because it has been a week since Aang has been shot with a fireball, he was alive and breathing, sometimes he walked around the palace just to stretch his legs and he was eating solid food for a few days now. But he was still lying on that metal bed and not racing through the palace halls in his air scooter like he always did, and seeing her friend acting abnormally seemed alien to the girl.

She walked to the infirmary with long strides, too long for her short pair of legs. She could tell she had arrived due to all the strong smells mixing in the air. She didn't know how could Katara or any other healer work in a place that smelled of so many spine chilling things.

The infirmary was a big room in length, but small in width. There was a row of metal framed beds with mattresses; not as glamorous as the rest in the palace's rooms. Next to the beds there was a metal bed-side table with a lamp on top of them and with each person's personal things.

She entered the infirmary and kept walking until she reached the third bed counting from the farthest. She knew it was his, not just because of his smell but also because of the sound of the rough breathing he had developed due to the wound. She placed the book she had been carrying on top of the other two he had on top of his little metal table, just next to Appa's whistle and close to the porcelain cup once filled with Camilla tea Katara always prepared for him before he fell asleep. She had been taking him things she knew he cared for: the whistle, his staff...

The books she had picked were of random though. There was no way in hell she would ask other people what were Aang's favourite novels, it was already weird enough to feel this need for him to get better, she didn't need the embarrassment of people asking why was Toph Bei Fong worrying so much.

Not even she knew actually; that was what she said to a smirking Katara when said waterbender asked. So to avoid further questions like those, she started to make proper visits only when other people weren't around and Aang was sound asleep. Late in the evening and soon in the morning, that was the time when she showed him how much she missed his company, his laughter, his wisdom, his hand and arm... how much she missed _him_. So, like a stalker, surrounded by darkness, she would sit next to him and confess all sorts of things she would never have the guts to say if she was not alone.

"Hey, Twinkle Toes." She whispered, afraid somebody might hear her most fragile side.

"Brought you another book today. I hope you like it... I basically grabbed the first one I found in your room, just like I did with the other two." She paused to place her hand on top of the book made of old materials, with her fingers she started to trace the lines of the title "So far I've been lucky: I haven't picked you a boring book like biographies or badly written sappy romance stories... but knowing you, you probably like that kind of stuff. Maybe one day you could read me one of your special books... show me why words are so special when they are written."

His response was silence, the same silence that has been climbing through her walls and scraping her insides. She let that silence talk to her for a few moments.

"When I was young, my maids used to read me stories before I go to bed... but they were boring stories, I was out like five minutes after they started." She chuckled "I guess that's why they are called bedtime stories. I want you to read me a real story Twinkles... maybe then I can understand the art of writing."

She started to play with the sheets, feeling the texture beneath her digits.

"I've been here so many times Twinkles... enough times to say that I could make my way here blindfolded. Thing is, I'm blind so... that doesn't count,"

Pause.

"Sometimes I try to come here without using earthbending to see, I bump into some walls some times... but I could come here once just palming through the walls like a lost, desperate child. Once I came inside, I couldn't help but immediately pick up your smell and hear your breathing."

Pause. Sigh.

"That's how I felt when you dropped on the ground like a bag of meat... I couldn't do anything! All I picked up from you was your lungs failing, your heartbeat racing, your skin melting... the smell... oh spirits, the smell! And the screams...both from Azula and from you! From Azula I never heard something like it; it was the stuff of nightmares...! And-and you, you made it look like you were going to _die_."

Her fingers carelessly started to grip the sheets.

"I felt so useless... so weak. I panicked and all I did was stay there, frozen, picking up all those horrible vibrations and doing _nothing_. I truly felt blind..."

Pause, breathing slowly, forcing back the urge to cry.

"I'm tired of you being in bed, Airhead. You gotta get out, you gotta get better and be back on your feet. It's your fault I'm feeling this way; I want to get better, so _you _get better! It's been a week Aang... I know you're just resting... but I want you to be 100% fine so I can punch you as many times as I want, so I can kick your ass in sparring matches, so I can take you to more dancehalls, so I can stuff each one of us with food..." she could've kept on naming random activities that could be so fun in his company, but decided against it.

Her hands blindly travelled the clean sheets. She figured he was sleeping with his back against the mattress, his arms resting on each sides of his body, because she found his large, soft hand pretty easily. She timidly and almost hesitantly curled her ten fingers around his left hand.

"I want my partner-in-crime back." The confession mixed in with her breath. But she said it, and it already felt good. She then fell silent, she didn't know what else to say so she remained quiet, her hands still around his. He, still asleep, never knowing what she said during all the times she visited him.

Time went by until she felt Katara's footsteps, so she immediately retreated her hands back to her lap and straightened her back, her bones cracking and her muscles stretching.

"Morning, Toph." The waterbender automatically greeted, already used to seeing her this early, and walked her way. She placed a tray somewhere on the bedside table "Do you even sleep?" she asked, hand on one hip and looking down at the girl.

"Yes." She answered quickly.

"Enough?"

"I take naps during the afternoon."

"Do you...?" She lowered next to her and moved away her bangs, searching for dark bags under the pale eyes.

"I'm okay, Sweetness! You don't have to worry about me, save that to him!" she yanked herself free from Katara's gentle hand, stood up creating some distance between them and with backs turned, stubbornly brushed her bangs back in front of her face.

"I just don't want you to get sleep deprived." She spoke warmly and sat down on the now empty metal chair. She folded her hands on her lap and decided to busy herself by checking on Aang as best as she could without waking him up.

"Same as always?" the earthbender asked, finally facing her, arms crossed in front of her chest.

"What do you mean?"

"His breakfast."

"Yup, rice soup. I've messed around with the seasonings, so the soup is a different recipe..."

"Smells good." She confessed after sniffing the steamy porcelain bowl "Maybe he oughta eat something... _fleshier_... so he can heal faster."

"Have you forgotten he's a vegetarian?"

"It's for his own good! It's probably because he's a bag of bones that he's been in this smelly infirmary for a week..."

Katara looked at her as if Toph had grown wings. She knew the girl was tough and carefree, but deep inside she knew she cared and needed to protect her friends; but the way she had been to Aang during this week had just been awfully out of character. There was a little flame in the waterbender's brain, an idea, a theory... but never did she gather the courage to face the earthbender about it. Heck, why not try it now?

'_Buckle up, Katara. Here comes a typhoon.'_

"Well, well... someone is extremely worried."

"Of course I am, he's my friend."

"He's my friend too and you don't see me waking up at six to check on him... you don't see me getting worried about what he eats or does during the day... you don't see me losing sleep about it..." she had a playful and all knowing tone in her voice.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Yes you do! You're Sugar Queen for earth's sake!"

"I was impersonating you, mud-slug."

"Katara, please..." she turned around to hide her discomfort.

"Hmm, something happened in Ba Sing Se that made you..."

"No." She shoved an open hand on her face, stopping her mid-speech "You are not going to start matchmaking. You never did, you are not going to and you will never. I willkill you if you start know." She spoke each word with such vehemence and deadly pauses in between that Katara gulped and shrank beneath the earthbender's accusing finger.

"Aang is my friend. I'm worried about him like everybody is. You didn't have your miraculous water with you this time and I'm also older, I no longer have that '_everything is going to be fine'_ attitude I had when I was twelve."

She walked to the wall and rested against it, arms crossed in front of her chest, one foot pressed against the wall behind her.

"And what about you and Zuko?" she shamelessly blurted out.

"Wh-what about me and Zuko?" the healer wasn't as comfortable with speaking of the matter as the sifu was.

"Please..." she mocked with a slight tilt of her head.

"It's just like you and Aang. We're friends." She spoke more calmly.

"Really? You don't make it out to be."

"Now, what makes you-" a pause, attempts at speaking, eyes travelling the room in search for answers, Toph tapping her bare foot on the ground, a smirk crawling into her lips.

"... damn... that's... that's just not fair." She hugged herself and buried her face in her arms. She heard Toph chuckle.

"I can't help it... I'm sorry."

"Does it beat that fast?"

"Yup."

"Do I blush that hard?"

"You're asking me?"

"My heart beats faster, so the blood spreads faster. Where exactly?" Her voice a tiny whimper now.

"Around, like, everywhere."

"... can I curse?"

"Go ahead."

"Shit."

"Oh, kids cover your ears..." Toph smashed her palm against her forehead "Are you kiddin'? Let it out, woman!"

"Shit. Shit, fuck, nuggety fuck, ass, bitch, mother... fucker."

"That's right, use these opportunities 'cause you don't get them often."

"Why do I always get myself into emotional clusterfucks?" she whimpered to her hands covering her face.

"What, because he's dating Mai?" she felt her nod "Well... that's some clusterfuck. But in case you haven't noticed, they haven't been in the best terms recently."

"That's no excuse... she's my friend, it wouldn't be right for me to just jump in right after she's gone. I mean, I don't even know if he likes me back! And it's an excruciating feeling that's been getting stronger and stronger the more time I spend with him; I want to help him like I never wanted to help somebody before, I want to be there for him whenever he wants to cry or laugh. And it gets worse... I think I... want... him. Like, all of him... it's so confusing yet intoxicating it makes me breathless and steals my sleep at night! I think it all began a couple of days ago, when Azula had been brought to the palace and he was feeling more depressed than ever and all I wanted was to help... yet he was so willing, so fragile there so close to me... and then that intoxicating feeling started burning me from the inside and I leaned in and almost... kissed him. A guard stopped me from doing it... I don't know how I managed to pull away... or how he pulled away... and that's where it gets confusing. Did he also want to kiss me?"

When she looked back at Toph, she was digging some wax out of her ear.

"You know what I just heard? Blah blah blah, romance drama, blah blah blah, something about eye sex."

"Yeah, I should have expected that. I pour my heart at you and you say that Toph? That's a little..."

"What, heartless? Rough? Sorry honey, but that's life: it's a big pile of bullshit. There is good bullshit too, but you have to work to get it." She heard Katara sigh "I'm sorry, Kat. You'll find a way, just let the dust fall down."

"You mean the civil war?"

"No, I mean all the baloney that's falling on Zuko's head: the civil war, Azula, Mai... go pick."

"But... aren't I supposed to help?"

"Let him clear his head... he's got a lot on his shoulders right now. He knows we're here for him, so if he needs help... he'll come."

"Who'll come?" Aang's raspy and sleepy voice entered the air. He heard them both yell their greetings at him: Toph's nickname and Katara's motherly words along with a hand on top of his. Katara carefully helped him up into a sitting position and gave him the now not so warm soup along with a spoon.

"Sparky will come at us if he needs help." Toph cleared.

"Hmm-hmm." Aang agreed with his mouth full of food.

"Well, I'm going. I've brought you another book Twink, I hope you hate it."

Aang smiled and led his hand to the new book on his bedside table, grabbing it and placing it in front of his line of sight.

"Rohmeo and Ju Liet?! This is a Fire Nation classic! Thank you Toph!" he spoke happily "You have a knack for choosing the best books even though being blind, what an amazing skill!"

"Ah... damn."

Katara smiled at them and started to seriously doubt her judgment on Toph's feelings for Aang. Maybe she really only liked him as a friend... who knew. The girl was a mystery.

* * *

After Toph left the infirmary she decided to busy herself with something, anything to get her mind off of Aang. Currently, in the middle of her afternoon she was practicing some earthbending in the palace's gardens, when she sensed something. Vibrations coming from behind of her, familiar ones... a very faint familiarity, but there none the less.

She stopped immediately and did the first thing that crossed her mind when somebody sneaked up on her, whether he was friendly or not: she sent an earth pillar at them.

A deep voice, unknown to her yelped to the pillar who probably hit him in the rear end.

"Who's there?" she demanded.

"Do you greet people like this often?" he asked while approaching her, his hand rubbing the bruised area.

"I'll 'greet' you again if you don't answer my question." She warned, her body shifting into the same stance.

"You don't remember me...?" he mumbled, and then added with added with a lower, more confident tone "Well, maybe this will refresh your memory." He said and quickly cupped her neck and planted a kiss on her cheek. Toph froze to the touch and walked backwards, stepping on her feet and landing on her bottom.

She immediately recognized who it was.

"OHEV?!"

"That seemed to work." He offered her a hand, which she refused, getting back on her feet on her own.

'_Darn it... I'm so screwed... Katara has been bugging me to visit him almost every day. But I've been so busy with Aang, I completely forgot about him!'_

"I heard you were here in the Fire Nation... I also heard that you have been sick, I was going to see you eventually!" she shot words out of her mouth "What are you doing here in the Fire Nation by the way...?"

"I've travelled with Chong and the others long enough... it was fun, yes. But I needed to start my own life, find a job... you know what I mean? And since I never went to the Fire Nation capital, I thought it would be a good starting point." He explained "Plus... I figured I'd get more chances of seeing you..." he grabbed her hands "But you were a no-show. Where have you been?"

"Back at home, I started a metalbending academy and travelled to Ba Sing Se a lot." It was her time to explain "I'm sorry I've never checked on you ever since I returned... Katara scolded me almost every day to go and visit you. She says Sokka brought you to the palace for interrogation due to that case with the chef, right?"

"Yeah he did. We've been pretty close to each other on these last few days, you and I... but you were always off somewhere else."

"I've been dragged into a very big clusterfuck." She remembered Katara's definition of her current emotional situation and couldn't fight back to urge to use such a word.

"I can imagine."

"What about you? I figured they haven't interrogated you with all the rebellion going on."

"No, they did a few times after I started to recover from my illness, but I always told them I didn't know a thing."

Toph immediately sensed the lie.

"You're lying." She pulled away.

"No I'm not." Memories that she was a human lie detector punched his brain.

"Whatever happened to you... it wasn't just an illness. What happened?"

"I got sick! REALLY sick, and needed to take a few days out!" the more he lied, the more he thought he was going to get a punch on the face.

"Ohev, if you keep on lying... I swear I'll choke you with your own intestines."

"I- I can't tell you the truth..." Every scream of agony, every nightmare, every time his stomach roared of hunger... all the memories came flushing through his mind.

"Why?" She interrogated roughly.

"If-if I tell you anything... my life will be at danger." He explained quietly, his fearful eyes looking around in every direction.

Toph raised an eyebrow and pulled him by the wrist inside the palace. Once inside, she bent a hole on the ground and pushed him inside without warning. He yelled, completely terrified as he went down a slide, Toph sliding down much more calm than he was. At the end of the slide, there was a slope she purposely made just so he landed on his bottom again, contrary to him, she landed on her feet.

"Okay, here we can talk. Out with it."

Ohev was afraid, Toph could feel it in his racing heart so she didn't force the answer out of him, instead, she bent a bench of earth, sat down and waited patiently.

"You know that story about me and my boss, right...?" he started while playing with his fingers "I-it has- I can't do this-"

"Ohev, for the love of all that is holy, this city is in a very delicate state and the truth is very important right now." She warned as gently as she could.

"You don't understand-"

"I will, if you tell me. There is nobody here Ohev, we are... I don't know how many feet underground. It's safe." Her patience was already fading away.

He started walking around, dragging his feet. Toph could feel Ohev's fear grow more and more as she followed his footsteps attentively. The more his fear grew, the more she thought he was going to turn her down and that started to infuriate her, the truth was palpable here, right in front of her, all she needed was his help.

"I said to everybody I have been sick and so did Liu Keng, my boss... That was... a lie."

"I already figured that, tell me the rest."

"It's hard!"

"I'll wait as much as I can." She crossed her legs.

"He- he kidnapped me." He confessed as all the memories started to play in his head like a nightmare. Over, and over again, repeating every scene, and as it did so, his memory could pick up new horrible details he missed at the first times.

"He did what?"

"He kidnapped me! Tied me to a chair, beat me up for three days and then brought me home again, treated the bruises he caused and fed me some kind of poison that made me sick for I don't know how many days!" he blurted out.

"Why?" she questioned, struggling to set her emotions aside while listening to his story.

"Because... I saw him sneak in the drugs that killed the Fire Lord's father." He whispered, afraid the walls might have ears "I saw him with a small pouch and he pour its content on the guy's breakfast... when he saw me, he grabbed me by the collar and swore to kill me if I opened my mouth. He said he was going to tear me limb from limb with his own hands." He confessed, his fingers growing weak as they dug themselves on his skull, as if trying to pull the memories out of it "I knew it all the while... I could've just swallowed my fears and warned the guards. But I didn't... all I did when I learned that Ozai was dead... was lock myself in a bathroom stall and vomit like the disgusting useless wretch that I am."

She tried to contain her sigh. It wasn't his fault, it's hard to gather courage in situations like these, she knew. All of this self-pity was getting her more angry than moved.

"And then, one day, when you guys arrived town... he came to my house during the night and... the last thing I could remember before I blacked out were those sharp, grey eyes of his. I remember so well... afterwards, when I was on that demented house and he beat me up in ways that don't cross the human imagination... I remember seeing his cold, emotionless eyes. It was like, he didn't care if I was about to drop dead..."

"You did good now, Ohev. You could tell it all to me and now, I can bring this new information to Zuko and this shit is finally over with."

He didn't have time to express his gratitude for helping solving a crime or nod to agree with her, because as soon as she spoke, she made the ground beneath them rise up towards the surface. And before he knew it, he was back in the palace and she was already storming off, probably towards the Fire Lord's chambers.

"Earthbending... is terrifying." He admitted when he caught up to her.

"You big sourpuss."

When she opened Zuko's door, she was shocked at the multiple pair of feet present in the room. She could feel Katara's gracious form between Zuko, sitting on his bed, and Aang hanging on his staff for support; Sokka, Suki and Iroh were also present.

Toph felt uneasy being in the presence of both Aang, the boy who had been on her mind no matter how hard she tried to shake his memory away, and Ohev, the boy who she knew thought of her as being special, and that was a memory that also played with her mind.

"Toph! And Ohev..." Sokka announced "Good you are here, we're going on a very important mission."

"Who? Me, you guys, Ohev or all of us present here in this room?" Toph asked.

"Team Avatar of course, but Ohev may come too, though I don't promise him to see anything pretty..."

"Is that your idea of a blind joke...?" her eyebrows twitched in irritation.

"Huh...? What, no! But now that you mention it, it's a -"

"Shut it, you too!" Zuko shouted, making them flinch under his commanding voice "We're in a critical situation here and you two are making up jokes?!"

"I've learned a piece of crucial information you might want to hear." Toph announced after composing herself. Since no reactions came from her comrades, she proceeded, feeling Ohev's nervous vibrations pulsing out of him as she did so.

"Liu Keng killed Ozai." Confused and angered vibrations were expelled from her friends and crawled up her sensitive feet. She turned her head to Sokka "Your predictions were right, he really did smuggle the drugs in and drugged Ozai's food. Ohev saw him do it, and so Liu Keng kidnapped him and beaten him up. But the weird thing is that after a few days of keeping him hostage, Liu Keng brought Ohev back to his house and, according to him, treated his wounds and gave him something to sicken him.

"Damned bastard... always there, under our noses!" Sokka growled "I knew it was him! Now do you believe me?!" At the end he said to Katara and Suki.

"I guess sometimes your intuition is right..." Suki mumbled.

"Perhaps your intuition could tell us why did he kidnap Ohev, the witness, and then brought him back to the city, carrying the truth." Katara said and looked up at the boy in question.

Ohev felt all eyes on him and his nerves started to roar inside of him.

"Calm down, Ohev... You're here with us, nothing is gonna happen to you." Toph assured, turning to him.

After fidgeting in his feet and searching her face for strength, the boy finally swallowed his fears and decided to play his part.

"I-I can't help much about that... when he was going to take me to back to my house, he said I was no longer a problem to him and his boss... and then he punched me on the side of the head and I blacked out, next I woke up in my room in the state you already know."

"There is still a veil of confusion shrouding this riddle... but we are starting to collect the right pieces of the puzzle." Iroh spoke "But we currently can't solve this mystery right now. We have a witness, but we can't demand a person's arrest for crimes we can't prove."

"Proof? You want proof? Aren't my bruises, buckets of vomit and days of absence proof enough?"

"The bruises can be explained with many stories... and the vomit and days of absence are just proof that you have been _sick_, like your boss said you were."

"I see... we need something we can touch to prove our theory. Like his journal..."

"That's right, but we currently have an important matter at hands."

"And what's that, pops?" Toph asked.

"Taking Azula's bending away." Zuko answered instead of Iroh.

"What?! Now, today? You can't do that, Aang can barely walk! Plus, there's a civil war going on and he's the Avatar! As soon as he comes outside of the palace walls, the rebels will roast him alive!"

"That's what I said too, but Aang himself wants to do this. And we will be there to safely escort him to the hospital." Katara spoke gently.

* * *

No matter how much Toph protested about how this was a bad idea, the conclusion they came upon was that Azula was an insane, dangerous firebender and must be stopped as soon as possible. Aang himself said this and proposed to do the job right away. So she was on top of Appa, along with her friends, very lost in thought while they flew above the empty streets of the demented city. Her life felt like it was completely upside down right now. Her mind didn't know what was right anymore with all that was currently happening; despite all the drama occurring in the city and to Zuko, she herself felt like she was in a lot of emotional drama.

And the main causes were Aang, who was huddled up on top of the beast's head, seeming very upset about something she couldn't put her finger on. The other cause, was probably still trying to dig his way out of the ground after what he done to her half an hour ago.

"_Wait!"_

He had called for her when she and the rest of the group decided to head off to the hospital. She tried and tried to tell them it was a bad idea, but it was no use, they already made up their minds and Aang was willing to perform the ritual right away. She waited for the boy to pick up pace with her. She could feel him grow nervous in her presence, her alone in this hallway in the end of the afternoon. A different kind of nerves... his heart wasn't beating due to fear, she could tell. But it was beating fast... so fast she thought it was going to jump out of his chest.

"_I... I just wanted to wish good luck."_He gently spoke to her.

"_Oh please, Farm Boy..."_Toph sighed out, using the nickname she had thought of when she remembered he had roots in a farm where he lived with his family before offering his services to her household _"It's not like I'm going into a life-death situation. You are not allowed to act like this, you know? You didn't want to come, so I take it you know I can take care of myself."_

"_I know I chose not to come, but it's none of my business. I've already played my part, the rest is up to you. And I_know_you can take care of yourself. But I can't help but worry for you... I've just reunited with you after all these years..."_he moved away her bangs from her eyes and placed his rough, calloused hand on her cheek. She felt her face grow hot against his fingers.

She remembered she tried to utter his name, she tried a lot of things actually, things she could casually do in normal circumstances but there was a boy right in front of her, touching her face and speaking sappy words only couples shared with each other.

She had never been in such a situation in her life, so all of her was completely paralyzed. She had a hard time breathing and was trying to calm her heart that was beating fast like lightning. She couldn't even push away his hand from her face like she thought she could do to every boy who tried to get close to her.

But she couldn't. And now that she thought of it, she truly acted pathetically weak at that moment.

And then next, to leave her even more like a block of ice, she felt his body tower above her, his other hand cupping her other cheek and then, in a gentle, slow and subtle movement, his lips touching hers. Just touching, not moving, not shaking like her whole being was at that moment. Just transferring his feelings via this solemn act: how much he had missed her during all these years and how much he worried for her well-fare. His intentions were good and true, she could feel it in the kiss.

But she couldn't take anymore affection, so she acted like she always did when she felt hopeless: she used violence.

She buried him until hip level, completely stopping all physical contact that was upon her. She ran as fast as her shocked state of mind allowed, which wasn't much because after a few seconds of running, she crashed against Aang. Of all people. Her mind was a mess; she didn't know if she should feel nervous because she had kissed a boy for the first time, or if she should feel ashamed because one of her childhood friends probably witnessed the kiss. And since she was so focused on the boy that was kissing her, she didn't pick up the monk's vibrations that she could easily sense a mile away. And worse of it all, she crashed unto him, the guy who had been shot by a fireball that almost killed him, and she just crashed against him like a true, blind person, and that probably hurt.

After various attempts at formulating a coherent phrase, because all she could do at that moment was gasp, curse and apologize in awkward ways, she helped him up and they walked side by side towards Appa. He didn't talk to her, about anything, so she was very confused right now. Even after pushing him to the ground, all he did was say that he was alright and that she didn't need to worry, he said that they should hurry because the others were waiting. He spoke coldly and seemed very distant, but she was too involved in the last set of events to think too much about the matter.

Even now, when they arrived at the hospital safe and sound, without even sighting any rebels, he was distant. He walked at his own pace, using his staff for support but not dragging his feet; his friends followed his lead, they were in pairs: Katara walked next to Zuko (as expected from Toph) and Sokka next to his girlfriend. She though, stood behind, on her own, replaying the scene over and over again, remembering every sensation Ohev's touch caused on her.

They arrived a fairly light room with no windows or second divisions, nothing but a bed with a metal frame and a cheap looking mattress. The medic that had escorted them to this room left, and minutes later he arrived dragging Azula on a wheelchair. She was wrapped around on a white cloth, a similar mask to the one she wore while imprisoned was tightened around her mouth. She was acting as vivid as she was a week ago; squirming, shaking and screaming in the wheelchair, her loose hair flying around her like a mane, her eyes shining bright with anger, hatred and... something else... something maddening, something that caused people to shiver and fear for their lives. Something that Aang, even though he hasn't seen many people with this look in their eyes, could define as bloodlust.

"It was impossible to give her any kind of calming drug... you must perform the ritual with her in this state." The doctor said while placing Azula in the centre of the room.

"It's okay... I think I can do it." Aang spoke, feeling Azula's death glare on him. He looked back at her and wondered how anybody could harbour so much malice and hatred.

He walked up to her squirming body; his friends were behind him in bending stances or with weapons ready. He gave his staff to a nearby doctor and slowly moved without the help of it, it hurt especially around his pectorals but it was bearable. One hand on top of her black heart, another with the thumb pressed against her forehead; his arrows and eyes started to glow a blue cleansing light, contrasting against the girl's clothes and the walls and floor of the white room.

Like a child entranced by a lullaby, Azula gradually stopped moving. Her heart was like a canvas, once filled with spots and random stripes made by an angry brush, black and red filled every inch of her. But now, Aang had picked up his brush and made a few strokes of his own, his blue won over her red. Harmony won over violence.

History repeated itself.

Aang demanded his staff back with a few wiggles of his hand and, breathing heavily, laying all his weight on it, too much for him to carry. He felt Sokka's strong hands on his shoulders to keep him on his feet, he heard voices asking about his wellbeing. But none of it mattered, he was too tired... both physically and mentally. All he wanted was to lock the world away and just sleep.

Zuko approached his still and silent sister with baby steps. She looked fragile and heavy: the only thing that still held her on the wheel chair was a belt around her wrapped up body, her head was hanging low and her legs were slightly apart. He felt Katara next to him and looked at her, desperately seeking guidance.

"She's probably exhausted, she won't try anything... I'm exhausted too. I'm going back to the palace." Aang said tiredly.

"I'm staying here. I need to talk to her." Zuko whispered, his eyes never leaving his sister.

"I'll stay too." Katara placed a comforting hand on the Fire Lord's shoulder.

"Maybe the rest of us could think of solving the crime." Sokka proposed.

"I can't guys; I've had enough royal family for a day. Ask the Dai Li's for help." Toph announced and took off, walking without a destination in mind, not worrying about the fact the solving this crime was a lot more crucial than comprehending her inner turmoil.

So, of course she was lying. All she wanted was some time for herself.

* * *

Aang lied. Not about the being exhausted part, he was very tired indeed, but what he truly needed was to think. Fly to a remote place and just get his thoughts organized. He climbed on top of Appa, and uttered a quiet Yip Yip and basically let the bison carry him to whatever place he deemed more secluded.

It ended up being a large cave on the side of one of the many mountains that surrounded the city. Appa got inside the cave and lay down on the ground, resting his old bones. Aang decided to sit down on the slope, his legs dangling in the wind, his robe swaying to the breeze. He was wearing pants and boots, but the only clothing he had on his upper body were his bandages and a silk robe he tightened around his naked body in order to protect himself from the cold.

"Why am I feeling like this... I feel so... betrayed. I can't shake the image out of my head! I need somebody to talk to, somebody who is not my best friend but my friend none the less. It would be nice if that person didn't know Toph..." he lamented to the wind, his forearms resting on his knees, his eyes lost in the cloudless sky. He spotted a little white creature flying in his direction and raised one eyebrow. As the creature drew near, he could tell it was Momo and let the flying lemur to sit next to him, chirping and moving his ears happily.

"Well hello there Momo, I don't suppose you could help me... you and Toph are pretty much pals..." he said while scratching a sensitive spot behind the animal's ear "I suppose I could try Roku... I bet he can help."

He walked further inside the cave and sat down against Appa's fur, cross legged, his hands in a meditating position. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, focused, and then he felt spiritual energy being drawn from him, taking Roku's form right in front of him.

"Aang, long time no see!" the old Avatar greeted.

"Roku, I need your help." Aang tried to keep a straight face, but feared the conversation that was to come.

"I can see you're hurt. Are you fighting a powerful foe?"

"Well... if you want to take things that way and if you consider me a powerful foe... then yes."

"Oh...! You're confused..." Roku concluded with a gentle voice "What troubles you, my friend?"

"It's... it's all about a girl." He confessed, lowering his backs and avoiding his past life's eyes.

"Oh...! Having trouble with the ladies, I see." He shot him a knowing smirk "What seems to be the problem?"

Aang told him the whole story between him and Toph, how much fun he had with her during the trip to Ba Sing Se and back, the realization of how much he missed her during all these years, his dirty thinking regarding the girl and lastly, all these confusing feelings he was having about witnessing her kissing somebody.

"Ah... teenagers... so melodramatic." Was the spirit's response to the tale.

"It... it just sucks. I don't know what to do!"

"First you must understand what you feel for this girl. With your story, I can conclude that this girl is a wild spirit who you can have limitless and certain fun with, right?"

"Yes... but there are other sides to her too. But those are harder to see..." Aang quickly added.

"You know her since you were twelve..."

"Yes."

"And you and her have been through a lot together, even a war."

"Indeed."

"And you missed her while she was travelling after the war?"

"Yes, but only **a** few days ago did I realize how much..."

"And you've done many activities together... time well spent, in your opinion yes?"

He nodded and hummed in agreement.

"Then I think she's just becoming your best friend!"

"Uh-what?!" he shouted. Of all the answers he was expecting, this wasn't one of them.

"Think about it: you like being with her, you trust her, you care for her-"

"But I-I... checked her out..." he spoke to the rocks and not to Roku.

"It's completely normal, you're seventeen and so is she! You're growing in body and mind, it's okay to wonder..." looks like he heard Aang's confession loud and clear.

"I... I don't think like this about other friends..."

"Maybe because she surprised you by showing up in front of you all pretty and girly. According to you, this girl is the tomboyish and tough kind, right? And that night at the dancehall, she surprised you! You thought she was pretty-"

"Gorgeous. She was pretty when she was twelve, that night though, she was gorgeous." Aang spoke dreamily.

"All the same, Aang. You think you have a good looking friend, that's perfectly normal! Just because you find somebody beautiful, that doesn't mean you are in love with her, that's animalistic thinking."

"But... after we danced, I couldn't talk straight to her... think straight. All I could think about was her!"

"Ask yourself this, Aang. Do you dream of her often? Do you have a need to be close to her? Hug her?" then he tilted his head and asked with a smirk that just made Aang even more embarrassed "Kiss her?"

"... no I don't." Aang said after thinking real hard.

But now that Roku brought that matter up, Aang started to make mental images of him and Toph, together. His sight fixed on some rock on the ground of the cave and time stopped for him as he created more and more scenarios. And in all of these situations, he thought that something was awfully wrong. Maybe because he took from example the times he spent with his only girlfriend so far, Katara, but in all those moments he always found himself thinking that in every situation he and Toph would argue about something.

They were complete opposites!

Earth and Air!

Loud and quiet!

Night and Day!

Force and Peace!

Meat and vegetables!

...

Maybe that was taking it a little bit to extremes.

"Maybe you're right..." he conceded.

"Only time can give you the answer to that and if your friendship is as strong as you say it is, then you have nothing to worry." Roku smiled at him but Aang wasn't convinced just yet.

"Then... what about the kiss?"

"I think that counts as surprising you. Did she ever get involved with somebody?"

"That I know of, only Ohev." Aang answered after searching his mind. She always gave him the impression that she didn't have time for boys.

"See?"

Aang managed a smile.

"Yes... I don't have anything to worry." His smile grew wider "Thank you Roku, I was completely lost."

"I'm glad I could help, now maybe it's a good time to get back to your friends. I bet they are very worried..."

"How did you-"

"Please Aang... I know you always run off when you are feeling confused."

He laughed.

"Until next time, my friend."

"See ya, Roku!"

The blue energy filled Aang, and Roku exited this dimension. Using his staff for support, he got to his feet and looked in the distance to the setting sun and remembered that moment he almost died by Toph's hands when he fell asleep mesmerized by a view. He chortled at the memory and climbed on Appa's head, feeling much more lightheaded.

He was confused when he saw Momo, who had set off firstly, flying quickly in his direction, the usual happy gleam in his eyes replaced by terror.

* * *

**Updated in 12 of July.**


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